LIBRARY Or CONGRESS, 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



Living Questions 



STUDIES IN NATURE AND GRAC 



WARREN HATHAWAY, 

PASTOR AT BLOOMING GROVE, NEW YORK. 



A 




"One God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all." 

— Eph. iv : 6. 



NEW YORK : 
FORDS, HOWARD, & HULBERT. 

1889. 



*,* I? 



1 N^k 



PTBIOHT, in 1889, 

15V 

WARBEN HATHAWAY 



TO 

THE MEMORY AND FELLOWSHIP 

OF Tin: 

Dear people of 3Bloomlnfl Grove, 

SOME IN HEAVEN AND SOME ON EARTH, TO WHOM I HAVE 

MINISTERED IN WEAKNESS FOR MANY YEARS, 

THIS BOOK 

IS LOVINGLY DEDICATED. 



PREFACE. 



It is in behalf of friends met along the way in the 
journey of life,— friends both lay and clerical; those 
filled with faith and those troubled with doubts,— that 
these discourses are published. 

One of the thoughts that come to us with peculiar 
sadness when in our experience we reach the borders 
of old age, and one whose prediction we would gladly 
change if we could, is that we must be soon forgotten. 
No doubt this feeling so universal is prophetic, is one of 
the promises that God has given us of an immortal life — 
a pledge that our names are written on an imperishable 
record. But when we see, as I have seen here amid 
these hills and valleys, an entire generation pass away, 
certainly the desire to bequeath some thought or act that 
may inspire, admonish, guide, or cheer those w T e love and 
leave, this feeling on the part of parent, pastor, and 
friend is not vain, but expresses our loyalty to the claims 
of affection and duty. 

Perhaps I should say that in these discourses, as in all 
I have ever given from the Blooming Grove pulpit, there 
has been enjoyed the widest " liberty of prophesying." 
In doctrine, reproof, and instruction, the Word of God 

is authority; while pulpit and pew bow to our Lord 

7 



8 J'. 

the In cua Bead of the 

Church, i my aim if he I 

Forth ac -illy Dame or 

Iranian redemption. EL be One that 

oometh: ire look ■ .But, ander I 

loy 11-*- ban the war i s evil is 

Le and vrith var - in 

in uur i manifested a 

methods with a tntial — 

able and spiritual — unity of purp 
than e ■ . And it would be less than cold ju>t 

up people among 
whom I have lived and labored d,uring twenty-th] 
tor their broad sympathy and the unrestricted 
theyhai irdedme in speaking the 

truth as the truth appeared to me. 

Ajb a nation and an age we i rich, so crowned 

ial m- of " the mighl of our 

our eloquence, our - . our p 

uon in pol mi it is "bythe grace of drod, we 

what we an-.'* To the guiding hand, the perf< 
b of the Almighty Father, do we owe our 
mi! j, And because his grace Eails not 

do . u we look into the mysterious futui 

W \i;i;i \ Hathaway. 

Bloom; -S9. 



CO NIK NTS. 



PAGE 

I. THE GUIDING HAND, n 

II. 04 >1> REVEALED 29 

III. THE NAMELESS PROPHET, 47 

IV. THE OFFICE OF CONSCIENCE, 6G 

V. THE RESURRECTION .85 

VI. THE ONE PRICE OF THE PRIZE 105 

VII. A ROYAL SENSUALIST, 121 

VIII. OUR REASONABLE SERVICE: PRAYER 139 

IX. A DIVINE VOCATION FOR EVERY MAN 168 

X. PERSONAL LIBERTY, 192 

XI. THE MISSION OF AFFLICTION, 215 

XII. THE SANCTUARY AND THE CHURCH, .... 234 

XIII. SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST, 259 

XIV. THE BATTLE OF LIFE, 280 

XV. THE REAL ISSUE: I, 298 

XVI. THE REAL ISSUE: II, 828 

XVII. THE VINE AND THE BRANCH, 348 



LIVING QUESTIONS. 



i. 

The Guiding Hand. 

" And we know that all things work together for good to 
them that love God." — Romans viii. 28. 

"AxDweknow." Here is the perfection of Chris- 
tian faith. How inspiring this confidence in one who 
has endured the full measure of trial ; who by weakness 
has been made strong, who has conquered by defeat, 
been cast down but not discouraged ; who did not for a 
moment doubt the goodness and presence of God — 
though suffering because of his fidelity, and threatened 
with death because of his devotion to the Crucified ! 

So strong is assurance, so complete is trust, so per- 
fect is spiritual vision, that the heart, grasping the sub- 
stance of its hope and faith, says, "I know." Not 
only is the sight clear, but the vision is glorious, — " We 
know that all things work together for good." Now it 
seems to me that this just touches with healing the 
point of our most frequent and painful doubt; comes to 
our aid just where there has ever been most fear and 

skepticism. If we could be assured that in things evil 

11 



12 LIVING Ql E8TI0N8. 

tii. illapromi food; thai Samson's riddle is 

r true parable of the world, every lion's cara 

..in!,, and that always u out of the 

er comi nd out of tl rt- 

>uld w< d thai in the pei tnomy 

heaven even the losses of sin ma] be again; the 

tie right, " the wrat h of man be made 

I ; " u bile that which cannot be utilized 

strained, bo that at the last "all things shall 

good/' promoting the welfare of the 

uni could we be grounded in this faith and in- 

in- hope, bow blessed even now would be our 

ditionl 

\- .d \d it must be bo. God is infinitely perfect, all- 
Wise, all-powerful ; and " lie must bave created the 

uni pom a perfect motive, of perfect material, for 

a perfect purpose :" and as no atom was forgotten, no 

lected, no soul passed by, in this perfect pro- 

OU an ktion, so under the hand of infinite 

aided by infinite Love, "'all things" must 
•• work together tor good." 

word of our text is precious. No doubt, in 

some things Paul Bpoke wiser than he knew ; for his 

language has a scientific verity of which he was not 

ire, But conscious of, and resting in. the great truth 

i universal Providence, he felt that he could not over- 

far. 
u We knew that all things work." This is a literal 

truth, a wonderful fact of the material unive 

Throughout the realm of matter there i less activ- 

• int el. Atoms, molecules, worlds, and 



the Gumnre hand. id 

erned by the law of continual motion 
and mutation. u Bach particle, closely as it seems 
packed with its neighbors, ia believed to be in a state of 
incessant vibration; and all material bodies, however 

solid they may appeal', are Supposed to be made up of 

an infinity of these wheeling parts, which never touch 

each other, and never fl Thus the study of matter 

Ives itself into the study of Forces, showing that all 

things are at work, and leading us to a new perception 

of that suhlime lesson of science — the unity of nature, 
u all things working together." 

Humboldt suggested that * k if the great movements of 
the stellar universe could be compressed into a short 
space of time, and we endowed with perfect vision to 
behold them, we should then vividly realize that there is 
nowhere such a thing as rest : stars, constellations, 
clusters, nebulae, unfolding, condensing, breaking up 
and melting away — motion in every part of the vault of 
heaven." "And we should behold a kindred spectacle, 
could we gaze with microscopic vision into the living or- 
ganism of plant and animal. For, in both, the constitu- 
ent atoms are in ceaseless movement, — combining, sep- 
arating, and circulating in paths of fixed and perfect 
order, in harmony with the motions of the firmament ;" 
the unity of the vast scheme, from star-dust to insect, 
unbroken; the movements of earthly life being cadences 
of the music of the spheres — the whole material creation 
in perfect accord. The viewless atoms of the green leaf 
whose ceaseless action is a condition of organic being, 
move to the same harmony, are vitalized, guided, and 
bound by the same law, that controls the countless suns 



1 1 LIVING QUESTIONS 

thatshooi their beams ght athwart the univer 

Hoi wonderful! W • it, but perfect vision 

and d< all things working together." 

rerywhere unbroken sympathy and unit;, 
ion. Aii ; from atoms to worlds, are marshaled 

in order, and mi erfect step in the march of 

time and the plan of God. 

But now v B point in t lie unfolding of our theme 

where the light of human knowledge and observation grows 

dim. i jhl we are clearly assured that all things 

k. and work together, in the material world; but this 

ion of God's dominion : material nature and 

<■ Inn a pari of his great commonwealth. It is 

tainly of interest to know there is this ceaseless labor 

lomplete harmony in all the realm of matter. 

• the precious, the practical truth that we need is, 

ivity and harmony, not the method 

the u: , but the purpose, the end of all this 

Why is this material cosmos without a trace 

of chaos, while the moral world of human industry, of 

volunt. \hibits so much seeming disorder; 

etual working with blended harmony and dis- 

cor Whi wait with breathless interest, the 

We know that all things work to- 

That is the end. Blessedness, as the 

of holi supreme purpose. 

But that our ultimate welfare, our final blessedness, 

is p urance that cannot be 

human discovery or experiment. It oan- 

1 by those who walk alone by sight. It is 

sun or stars. If St. Paul had 



the 9UIDINQ li.wn. Ifi 

been versed in all Boience, ancienl and modern; if be 
had been qualified to be leader and teacher of our 
"British Association " and "French Academy;" had In* 

ed all that is ]<>>t of human knowledge, and all 

thai has been gained to the present hour. -still ac 
entist he could only have said, "We know that al| 
things work together." There ho must have stopped. 
The purpose, the final result, the divine meaning of 
this w«»rk;: changing world; this sinning and 

suffering, this living and dying; this hope, toil, and de- 
spair, — all would be a dark enigma. The greater the 
ght of know! the deeper, darker, the abyss be- 

neath and before us. From the highest point of mere 
human attainment, the vision is limited by a mysterious 
beginning and a gloomy, uncertain end. 

That "all things work together for good" is a truth 
that is revealed alone by the light of God — revealed in 
the light of his mercy, love, and redemption as seen in 
the face, as reflected in the glorious Gospel, of our Lord 
Jesus Christ. 

Is it difficult for us to believe there is a conserving 
power, a mighty hand, an infinite heart, a Father Al- 
mighty who can and will bring order out of the confu- 
sion of the moral world — bring good from evil, bring 
holiness and bliss from its sin and sorrow? Is it diffi- 
cult for us to believe there is a divine economy in which 
there can be no loss in the material world, no ultimate 
failure in the moral, but that everywhere and evermore 
all things must work together for good ? 

I know this assurance of faith and hope is precious. 
Does it seem tinged with the fancy of an enthusi; 



16 uvnro QUESTIONS 

<>od for diet faith? Out upon 

• i ! Banish it from the heart ! Can our 

ond what God can dof Can 

•• a brightness thai can gild the glo- 

• ba1 can increase the luster of an eternal 

eive of a beauty to adorn, or a gem 

to enrich the d Jerusalem the Golden? 

A- to add a virtue or a power to the Infinite 

God. 

Why should we doubt? The Lord God Omnipotent 

gneth: what more call faith demand for its exercise 

, triumph ? Lei the ! Let the seas be 

L, and belt our dear old world with a shining zone ! 

their bright waves roll and thunder as they sweep 

the march of power ; and let the hills and mountains 

clap their hands ! Our Father IS OD the throne, and 

"the whole earth shall he tilled with his glory." 

While the Goe the foundation of our confidence; 

yet we . mded by the object-teaching of God ; for 

behold expressions of divine thought ; 
d the blackness of sin becomes the foil of holiness, 
wring the certainty and grandeur of his justice. 
We readil] ve that nature's laws guard the gen- 

welfare; but do they Becure the good of the indi- 
vidual? We see that races live, that types of being are 
. while the single life seems of small value in 
the w< of this rough world. Hut I cannot 

. .-<» far as man is concerned, that lie was made 

m, order, class, or type; hut Instead of this, 

it must be that, under the perfect providence of the All- 
. all things will, when ripened, completed, 



THE <;nm\<; HAND. 1? 

blend into thai efficient harmony expressing the dec 

and triumph of infinite love,- tli«' ultimate good of 
every child of Beaven. If God clothes the grass and 
decks the flower — if nol a Bparrow Ealla unnoticed, can 
a son «>r daughter of the Lord Almighty be forgotten? 
Yon may forget your child, the mother may negled her 
babe: God cannol forget. 

" But, " exclaims the partial, hasty observer, "1 - 

ition full of waste, wretchedness, and sorrow." 5 
men have bo looked upon the evil and the pain that 

r the Ea nature as to doubt the beneficence of 

God. Holier it lias horn said in bitterness, and also in 

row, "If God is almighty and all-wise, he must be 
unkind ; or how could he have left his creation so imper- 
fect ? w Ah! that is just the point: God has not "left" 
his creation; it is not yet complete — neither finished nor 
furnished. Jesus said, " My Father worketh even un- 
til now, and I work." And we are assured that Christ 
" must reign " — or continue his work — "till he hath put 
all enemies under his feet." According to divine prom- 
ise, the time is coming when there shall be no curse, no 
tears ; when evil, or its personification, the Devil, shall 
be chained, and righteousness triumph. If the present 
were final, rather than provisional, — consummation, in- 
stead of trial; if God had finished his work and the 
end had come, it might be hard, or much harder, to 
meet the doubter's criticism. But it is always fair to 
wait until the architect or designer has completed his 
work before we praise or condemn. 

Suppose some of our critics had looked upon the earth 
during the first part of the eventful week of creation; 



18 UVHTG QUESTIONS. 

suppose they had witnessed the storms, looked upon the 
boiling oceans, the plowing of earthquakes, and the 
h;n i he tempesi - ? They could nol imagine 

that fnmi this wild strife of fierce, embattled elements 
our and i il world would at lasl erne] 

it think the work of God imperfect, not being 
■ •how ■ ail these terrible agencies were working 
together to evolves beautiful habitation for man. We 
j well wait. For if God in his infinite patience takes 
the dateless, geologic ages to build a temporary habita- 
tion, who can wonder that he has not yet, in the nar- 
row Limits of historic time, finished his moral creation — 
the final, eternal home and Btate of man? It is with 
the husbandry of God as with grain in the field — "firsl 
the blade, then the ear, and after that the full corn in 

the ear." 

We are told in promise that at the end — away yonder, 
where hope and faith may even now see the swelling 
domeof consummation; at the end, when God's work 
BhaU be complete, when the now unfinished temple of 
his grace BhaU stand perfected in the splendor of his 
glory, — then there shall hnrst from an adoring world a 
r like the sound of many waters, like the roll of the 
thunder. Baying: u Alleluia! Salvation and glory and 
honor and power unto the Lord our God 1 Great and 
marvelous are thy works, jusi and true are thy ways, 

thOD K | M Then we shall see, as we cannot 

till then, how "ail things work together for good. n 

Still, our text has a present value, for it expresses an 

j truth of the divine care; and if we will but 

look and think, we may see that the strong language of 



THE GUIDING HAND. 19 

the Apostle is bnl the echo of the footfall of our God, 
as he walks in justice and mercy the eternal round of 
nature and gift e. 

Hut we are told thai the laws of nature are inexorable, 
and that, under their blind power, instead of good to all 
there are countless evils, dark and terrible. Yes, there 
are tempests, plagues and famines; we Bee no! only life, 
hut death,— not only joy and brightness, hut disaster and 
despair. We may see the gallanl Bhip proudly sailing 

r a summer sea, BOngfi and danecs on her deck, joy 
and hope filling every heart. And yonder in wintry 

Btormand darkness is a steamer,- the ill-starred Atlantic, 

it may he, — with her thousand precious lives, plunging 
through the gloom onto the cruel rocks of an iron shore 
— sweeping through the darkness into the jaws of death. 
Oh, what frantic cries ! What prayers go up into the 
wintry heavens ! A thousand souls call to God; but the 
desert shores and the remorseless breakers seem to 
mock them, for not a mother, sister, wife, or child is 
saved. 

The old tower of Siloam falls, and eighteen men are 
slain ; not because so wicked, for they were no worse than 
their neighbors, but because of the law of gravitation. 

A weak or rotten bridge lets the express train into 
the river. A neglected switch wrecks the loaded cars, 
and innocent passengers are " hurt past all surgery," 
burned and tortured to death. 

You ask, Is God a present, perfect Providence ? Do 
all things w r ork for good amid these terrors ? Yes: 
without the uniformity and certainty of material laws 
there could be no such thing as nature, and chaos would 



UVIM, QUESTIONS. 

come again. There could be no Bafety, experieo 
education, or pn Law, with itfl perfect Banctio 

is our protection and our hope. Would you suspend 
the Ian 'ii. thai Becures the beaut] and sta- 

bility of the universe, because, if you blunder and 
<>u arc liable to be thrown down ? Would you 
blot out the -un, that turns to gold a thousand leagues 
of corn, 1" your little patch of turnips is scorched ? 

i bridge is cashed away and the " Limited Exprei 
attemp 3, it will plunge into the swollen river: 

and I am glad of it— glad the laws of God are always 
reliable. If they were not, we might never seethe sun 
rise again ; the world would be a lost orb, rushing 
through startled space to speedy ruin. 

Law is constant, ated with absolute certainty; 

hence we may learn, that every pain or penalty, every 
fall or hurt, every pineh, stumble, or disaster is but the 
pleading of God in nature for us to be true, honest, 
\ igilant, obedient, — for us to respect his commands and 

do his will. 

Do you not see "all things work together for good 
to those who love " — that is, obey? To tli is there can be 
exceptions, either in the realm of grace or of nature. 
[f obedient, every force about us is read] to lock into 
our hand, and every blessing to crown us with golden 
diad A crowded steamer may blow up on the 

river or tl ; misguided engines may rush together, 

and all the ruin that follows is but the result of law as 
tixed and ; efieent afi the ebb and How of the tide, 

or the silent coming of the dayspring. The earlier 
we know it the better, that it is useless and fatal to 



mi: a rim Mr BAND, 21 

pro tgainsl the pillars of God's throne agaii 

the foundations or laws of nature; tor we shall 

ak thrin. but they may grind as to powder. Good 
is promised to loying obedience, and this promise, like 
the Boarlei thread in the naval cordage ol England, rone 
through every strand and fiber of the tackle and rigging 
of this universe of God. The world has been enriched 
by sorrow, and is being made perfect through Buffering. 
There has nol been a needles . or a useless pang, 

in all thee J. The earth is cleansed by Hoods of 

grief, and is baptized in blood to its redemption. 

(iood comes to the good, — comes from affliction, from 
the wastes of evil, from bitterness and death. The 
world is wiser and purer because of fire and flood, — be- 
cause of the pangs of hunger and the frosts of winter. 
We should not question the use of seeming evil, or 
doubt the goodness of God, because the cross stands be- 
fore the crown, or because every victory has its price of 
conflict. What else could teach or save the wayward 
nations but the sternest ministers of God I He plows 
by earthquake; he furrows by torrent or the icy 
omnipotence of the glacier ; he harrows by cyclone and 
tempest, winnows by fire : but what else would suffice 
for his husbandry ? 

Since the great fire of 1666, London has never been 
visited by the plague. And every leap from its Indian 
jungles of that tiger, Asiatic cholera, whose fatal spring 
and fearful havoc make the nations pale with fear, has 
increased the health and longevity of the world ! In- 
deed, all evils that come from ignorance, selfishness, and 
lust are so many divine advocates pleading for right- 



22 LIVING QUBSHOm 

eousness, and are surely leading the world on to tin* 
ripeness and glory of the Golden Fear. 

It is neither wise aor becoming U>v as to donbl the 
goodness, justice and exactness of God in bisdealii 
because we are anable to prepare a perfect balance-shed 
of the universe. So, while we arc not able to see how 
u all things wori together for good/ 1 yel experience and 
reason encourage as to walk by the aid of the only guide 
thai can give as peace and lead us through the dark- 
ness. 

While it is possible tor VLB to Bee that the fixed results 
nature are heiieticent, always working for good to 
obedience, yel far deeper and darker are our perplex- 
ities as we look at the moral world, its folly and mad- 
ness. Who, looking out OB this stormy sea of life where 
evil BO often seems to triumph, — where robbery and wrong 
prevail; where vice is often on the throne, and virtue in 
the dungeon ; where there is a cross for Jesus, and a re- 
ward for Judas: a prison for Paul, and a palace for 

ro; the rack and flames for sainthood, and golden 
crowns for lusl and meanness, — who, with these dark 
visions, is not liable to sink in doubt or despair unless 
confidence in God sustains the soul ? Looking 
at the way things work by the light of our imperfect 
judgment, how difficull to realize thai over and under 

and through all there is unerring wisdom and infinite 
affection! Eel faith in God will, in the deepest night, 

lead us 

• To feel, although do tongue can prove, 
That every cloud, thai spreads above 
And relleth love, Itself Lb love." 



THE <;ru>iM, n.wh. 29 

may feel that God is "Our Father/'ever present, 

r wairhi'ul. controlling and directing all to the fmal 
triumph ot truth and righteousness; whose ultimate 
purpose will be consummated in the extirpation of evil, 
in the destruction of Satan, and in the eternal victory of 
justice and mercy. 

M I see the wrong that round me lies, 

1 feel the guilt within; 

I heai with groan and travail-crii 

The world confess its Bin. 
Yet, in tin* maddening maze of thing! 

And tossed by storm and flood, 

To one fixed truth my spirit clings-— 

I know that God is good." 

We need this assurance. We need the promise of our 
text to silver with hope the clouds of earthly sorrow. 
We need to hear in every watch of the night, amid the 
thunders of the storm, that "all is well!" AVe need 
to feel that God can and will take care of us; that 
whatever happens is foreseen by him; that w r e need 
fear no evil, for no tempest or revolution, no overflow 
of corruption or epidemic of sin, can thwart his pur- 
poses of final good, his plans of ultimate holiness. 

How sublime and cheering this faith of Paul — "I 
know" ! Rejoice, ye prisoners of hope ! I know T God 
rules; and as all things — every drop and atom, every 
sun and world — work together to ripen the purple vin- 
tage on all the hillsides of Palestine, to whiten the 
barley harvest and mature the corn, — so I know that 
every thing, sad or joyful, is ripening all the seeds of 



Ll\ l\<, QUESTION'S. 

truth; ripen iiravni; turning to gold the 

fields of God's spiritual husbandry; Lb promoting and 
finishing the good of bis children, the eternal welf; 

ol his mi! 

u may still ask, " What of the mystery ol evil ? 
\\ liv does I «'"i -why does perfect power and wisdom — 
permit that which perfect holiness abhors? Why is 
this otherwise fair creation defaced with Bin?" And 
then again we ash with bated breath., "While we may 
how all things favor the good, how is it with the bad 
—the wicked ? What of their destiny P u The fitt< 
survives." u What of the unfit P" I .-hall not attempt 
these difficult questions. But it seems to me a theodicy 
a vindication of God's justice — is possible. Jn regard 

to Our temporal pains and troubles, or the 61 ils that God 

may be said to cause as the executive of his material 
dominion, as when he declares, u I am the Lord: 1 form 

the light and create darkness: I make peace and create 
evil: [, the Lord, do all these things," — here it is not so 
difficult to seethe divine beneficence of our affliction-, 
and that he is ever 

" From Beeming evil still educing good, 

And belter thence, and better still. 
Jn infinite progression." 

Bui ii ifl the corruption, the treason of sin, or the 
transgression ol spiritual laws by Eree, responsible 
beings,- this ifl the enigma; here is the most painful 
doubt. Perhaps we can never here reach a complete 
solution of the permission of evil, or rather of sin. Can 
the finite comprehend the Infinite P But we may say. 



////•: QUID IN Q u.\\i> 

regarding th< sin: it must be true 1 1 

good. t hat there Bhould be a world, this wide 

realm of nature; that, then- Bhoold be sentient beii 
though t ht'i pain becomes possible; thai there 

should be the power to obey, though this implies the 

ability to I r; 38; it must be b :iat WG Can Ik* 

virtuous, though nee h a contingency: yes, it 

must be better to ha rible beings, 

beings in the divine image, — even though Satan and 
sin should enter the world. I Bay it is better; for as 
the loving Father has made man in his own likeness, 
u there is evidently in the Divine Mind one thing worse 
than Bin, and that is the absence of all opportunities of 
moral life and spiritual goodnee Better the growth 

and completion of the spiritual nature, — better the 
heaven of holiness and the crown of a divine manhood 
with its immortal issues, — than the mere suppression of 
sin! Better the positive, eternal outreaching for good 
that may grasp the treasures of the universe, than the 
prevention of evil by leaving the world destitute of 
moral subjects and moral law. 

As the Gospel is not a system of philosophy, but a 
vital power, it does not give us a theory of evil; but, 
what is far better, it provides for its cure or extirpation. 
The Apostle John declares, " For this cause was the 
n of God manifested, that he might destroy the works 
' of the devil." And Paul also speaks of the mystery of 
evil or of iniquity, u whom the Lord shall consume with 
the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the 
brightness of his coming." He who ajypeared as the 
Babe of Bethlehem is seen again in Apocalyptic vision 



26 HYING QUESTlom 

a> the "Faithful and True/' on a white horse capari- 
soned tor royal triumph, with how and crown, riding 
forth conquering and to conquer;" for he must "reign 

till he hath put all enema- under hifl feet, that at the 

I;im ( tod may be all and in all." 

Does not this vision and promise of the Gospel Bug- 

the 'i\ of the Psalmist with which all must 

sympathize, "0, lei the wickedness of the wicked 

COme to an end; and let the whole earth he tilled with 
glory"? May we not hope that when the stone of 

the prophet's vision shall break in pieces and grind to 

dust the ej'ld. silver and brass, the clay and iron of the 

world's ambition and power, no place being found for 

them, and t he mountain of God fills the whole earth, — 
may we not hope there shall he an end to the wicked- 
ness of the wicked? In hope" we look for a new 
heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelieth righteoUS- 

ness." 

The doctrine of our text teaches us the perfect pro- 
vidence of God. It is not so much an inspiration of 
hope, of what we are to expect in the "great here- 
after/ 3 hut the precious assurance of an ever-present 
Power in whom we may rest or toil, labor or wait, iu 
absolute confidence. It is not a cry from the depths, 

but rather from the crest of faith— a call to us from the 

heights of triumph: "The Lordreigneth: let the earth 

Bfladr 
Our Heavenly Father is now directing all things — the 

[ring mote, the wheeling planet, and the beating 
heart; watching over Bparrow and kingdom; bending 

:• the cradle and the empire: molding the dew- 



THE 91 WING EA VD. 

drop, and marshaling all the powers of his onivei 
Our faith is often shaken by the Beeming oonfusiou 
about us. but tin' Almighty is forever Bending the shut- 
tle of his mercy with the golden threads of hie love 
through all tin- webs of time, and the moral universe 
Bhallalsobe a Bpotless robe to the praise and glory of 
his loving wisdom. 

Yon to whom trouble has come in a form unthoughl 

of, and for which you are unprepared, — trouble, it may 

that closes all the avenues of hope, — do not despair; 

lighl will come Borne how, BOme way, if you love God, 

and the very evils you deplore will turn to messengers of 

m1. to ministers of divine favor. 

And you who are weighed down with burdens hard to 
carry and still harder to cast off, you whose hearts are 
sore from bereavement, — and I see many such before me, 
— God has not forgotten you; your buried joys shall be 
like the tulip-bulb, bereaved of the sunshine only to rise 
and bloom in immortal beauty. 

You who have striven with wayward children seem- 
ingly in vain, — who are about to give up the contest in 
despair, and are ready to cry with the sorrowing Patri- 
arch, " All these things are against me," — strive on, pray 
on; good will come: you have the promise of the Great 
Father of us all. 

You who are hedged in by untoward circumstances, 
seeing no escape, with the sea before you and the 
mountains forbidding retreat, — let me say, "Stand 
still and see the salvation of God l" His mercy will pro- 
vide a way, even though it be through the flood. And 
while to lead you in the way there may be no banner of 



LI vim; QUESTION 

illar ot cloud, yel by the gentle whispers of 
hie Spirit Our Father will lead you ou1 of bondage into 
the freedom ot his abundant grac 

ur Dot, doubt not, falter not; for nothing can come 
to you of joy or sorrow thai will be any surprise to Him 
who lias ordained in infinite wisdom and decreed by in- 
finite power that "all things shall work together for 
good to them thai love God." 



n. 

God Revealed, 

" Philip Baith unto him, Lord. Bhew ua the Father, and it auf- 
iiiis. I ill unto him. Have I been so long time with 

yon, ami yet hast thon no1 bown me, Philip? He that hath 
me hath Been the flather."— 81. Jd B, 9, 

Av mx in the fresh clover, a robin in a cherry-tr< 
may be perfectly content Saving a supply for their 
immediate wants, their every desire is satisfied. They 
have peace without hope, doubt, or fear. 

But man is not contented even with the abundance of 
a world. He cannot rest in nature alone, nor find in 
material good, peace of mind and soul. Give him the 
widest range, and there is still a sense of restraint, an 
unsatisfied desire for a yet higher, ampler flight. Is 
not this boundless unrest prophetic ? We may well ask 
in trembling hope, Why is man made an exception to 
the otherwise unbroken harmony of the animal world ? 
Why should he alone be at war with his surroundings? 
Why this unrest, — this thirst that all the fountains and 
floods of earth cannot quench? With him alone the 
law of supply and demand is a failure. With him there 
is no perfect adaptation to conditions, no nice balance 
of want and provision such as we see in all other crea- 
tures. 

For there is this fact, — patent to all observers since 

29 



Ll\ l\<, QUESTIONS, 

men began to observe, — thai by do earthly good, do 
ii-w precious or bow extended, can the heart and 
bou] of man be filled and made content. 

• TWO li-:tL r in^ Will cover all wherein I have a part, 

But all the wi<le blue heavens can never till my heart." 

Such disconteni La the mosl familiar of all truths, and 
simply echoes the cry of the common heart, whether it 

beats under rags or royal purple, whether in a palace or 
a log-cabin. 

It seems that this must be prophetic, or something 
like the unerring desires of the animal ; a divine intima- 
tion or promise of that immortality which is revealed in 
full-orbed splendor in the Gospel of Christ. It is the 
cry of the soul after God, — u Whom have J in heaven 
hut thee? And there is none upon earth thai I desire 

de thee." 

A- every instinctive impulse in nature implies ade- 
quate provision, so this OUtreaching <>f the heart must 
imply something beyond this world— a promised land 
where the pilgrim, the nomad of the ages, shall beat 
rest, Bhall be ;it home. 

Because of these intuitions, and because we are con- 
by things that are made, and by spiritual attrac- 
tion, of the existence of some greai Power, Borne eternal 
Being, our fear, love, reverence — every power that sep- 
arates it- from the contented brute — cries out : Whal is 
God? How does lie regard me? What are his pur- 
poses? What relation does he sustain to man ? What 

o be our destiny? Are we like the drifting bubble, 
Q t<> vanish lorcver; like the meteor shining for a 



)B REVEALED. 81 

moment out of the darkness, then quenched in eternal 
gloom ? 

While nn-rt 4 speculation lias endeavored by searching 
to find out God's nature and disclose the secrets of his 

being, less idle and far more reverent has heen the de- 
sire of the yearning heart to understand his character, 
to apprehend his relations and disposition* 

Much of our environment is fixed, inevitable : is it the 

result of chance, or fate ; of love, or law ; of Borne blind 

tntie force, or of infinite affectionate wisdom? We 

cannot scale the walls of existence to escape from life, 
nor can we enter the dominion of another Deity. Hence 
the thoughtful have eagerly sought to know the mind 
and plans of the Eternal Being who must be our God 
forever. 

Moses was a representative man when amid the splen- 
dors and terrors of Sinai he prayed, " I beseech thee, show 
me thy glory!" And Job, when from the depths he 
cried, " that I knew where I might find him, that 
I might come even to his seat \" And Philip, when lie 
said to Jesus, " Lord, shew us the Father, and it suf- 
iiceth us." Thus ever the cry of earth goes up — the 
cry of the heart after God. 

Because of this desire men have not only sought to 
find God, to acquaint themselves with him as a spirit, 
but they have endeavored to aid the mind and satisfy 
the heart by some sensible embodiment ; aimed to por- 
tray their ideal by some symbol or image. Ancient 
heathendom was full of idols — efforts of a rude, strug- 
gling age to set forth Divinity. Each tribe and na- 
tion had its distinctive ideals of Deity, its own peculiar 



LIVING QUESTIONS, 

mythology ; for men can build their spiritual hopes and 
homes only ol Buch materials as they possess. 
In this respect the world is unchanged, being still full 

<.f idols — efforts to present in some tangible form the 
ritual and invisible. Bach age, Beet, and nation carve 

out by the hand or the mind, by the skill of the artist 
or the logic of the theologian, from the marble or the 
imagination, from rock or reason, the ideal which each 
has attained of God, 

All the idols worshiped are not in heathen lands ; 
for Christendom, too, lias its varied mythology, its many 
and its contrasted Deities. No more does the Hindoo 
carver of wood and stone present false gods for worship 
than docs the Christian, often, by his speculations. 

I would bring no false accusation against the Brother- 
hood, heathen or Christian ; but all must see this. 
when they consider the vast difference between the God 
adored by Knox of Scotland and the God adored by 
Mary Tudor of England; the Cod of Luther and the 
God of C< i <) ; the Deity of Ohanning and the Deity of 
lvl wards ; the Cod worshiped by the peasantry of Spain 
and the God worshiped by the orthodox people of Mas- 
ni-ctts. But we cannot believe that men are wickedly 
idolatrous when they are obedient to the host, and rev- 
erent to tin 1 truest, light they have, and worship their 
puresl ideal in spirit and in truth, or in loving sincerity. 

It may always he said in their praise that men have 
given to this work of symbolizing or portraying God 
their highest, richest gifts and their noblest powers. 
They have no1 withheld gold, gems, or skill: for the 
most precious offerings ever given, and the fairest crea- 



SOB RBVEALBD, 

Hoi genius ever wrought, have been efforts to em- 

body or reveal conceptions of the Supreme, Bee 
invention, and imagination have touched the limit of 
human excellence in religious art and architecture. 

yet with all its splendid temples and al tat 
search and yearning cries, how evident thai the world 
tailed "to gain by its wisdom the knowledge of the 
wisdom of God" ! del us look al an instance of this 
failure, that we may realize the abundance of our spirit- 
ual blee 

So far as we arc able to judge, the masterpiece of 
cian, hence of human, art, was I he statue of Olympian 
Jupiter, by Phidias of Athens. This was the crown and 
glory of Grecian mythology. It was placed in the vast 
Doric temple on the plain of Olympia. There, in the 
holy place of this national sanctuary, on a throne of 
state, was seated this majestic god of ivory, ebony, and 
gold. 

The colossal monarch held in his left hand a symbol 
of victory ; in his right, the scepter of universal domin- 
ion. 

All the Grecian world came at times to Olympia to at- 
tend the sacred festivals. It was during these national 
gatherings that the expectant, reverent thousands wit- 
nessed the unveiling of this symbol of their worship. 
The epiphany of Jupiter was a supreme moment. Amid 
awe-inspiring ceremonies and all the most skillful ac- 
cessories of devotion, as the music ceased and the 
clouds of incense rolled away, in the solemn hush of 
waiting thousands that is itself most impressive, the 
subdued yet excited multitude saw looking down upon 



34 uvixa QUESTIONS. 

thrin the awful hoe of the King of gods and men ! 
Thrv cried, they fell prostrate, they fainted in paroxysms 
of tear or delight, as they gazed on that sublime form ! 
There thrv beheld grandeur, power, authority! Im- 
perial glory, exclusiveness, and severity looked from 
that throne upon the awe-struck worshipers. Hut 
that dead, <•« »1 « 1 ivory reflected no love, nor pity, nor 
mercy; no sympathy, nor patriality : the worshipers saw 
only Jupiter the Thunderer ! 

'l\u><r pilgrims at Olympia came with the prayer of 
Moses and the petition of Philip in their hearts, be- 
ihing t<> see God's glory. What they did behold was 
God symbolized by the skill and wisdom of man. 

lint we have something better. Jesus comes as the 
'• Desire of all nations," — comes to meet and satisfy this 
demand of all souls. Be comes to unveil, to embody 
Divinity. Be comes that we may see the light of the 
knowledge of the glory of God in Ins fare — see in him 
the image and express glory of the Invisible, lie comes 
to prrsnit God to the world in word and in life. 

When the nations that liavr waited long, cry out, 
breathless with hope and fear. "Show us, oh show us the 
Eternal One— show us God \" — He, the Teacher of the 
ages, the Mrssiah. draws aside the curtain of the invisi- 
ble world and reveals "Our Father in heaven" ! lie 
shows us not only majesty, power, and glory, but more : 

mercy, sympathy, paternity, on the throne of the uni- 
verse, above all, over all, blessed forever. 

Yet, Btrangely enough, this cheering epiphany has been 
in greal measure obscured, if not despised. As we said, 
turn seek t<> portray God according to their ideal. And 



OJD UBVEALED. 

hence we need instruction ; tor, to conceive arighl of 
moral power, to admire and reverence the kind and 

title, the generous, meek, and loving, is the result of 
spiritual growth,— is beyond the reach of the rude, un- 
cultured mind. 

It is no1 strange, therefore, that false gods are uni- 
formly harsh and merciless destroyers. u Thou thought- 
thai I was altogether such an our as thyself. " And 
how could those who glorify animal courage and physical 

prowess, who adore the might that crushes, and who 

crown as their king the Moodiest champions, — how 
could such minds, unaided, conceive of a Deity whose 
glory IS compassion and tenderness, a Supreme Being 
" merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in 
goodness and truth " ? 

But, aside from artistic representations of God, among 
professed Christians there are two analogies or symbols 
that have been most common and influential in ouv 
efforts to apprehend aright and to worship the Supreme. 
One view regards God as most truly a King — an imperial 
Ruler. The other regards him as "Our Father/' One 
view looks upon Divine Sovereignty as the fundamental 
truth of theology. The other regards Divine Paternity 
as the paramount revelation of the Gospel concerning 
the nature and relations of God, 

We readily conclude the kingly symbol has been, if 
not the most correct, at least the most popular. As the 
absolute monarch, victorious and despotic, was the mos*i 
powerful and glorious of any earthly being ; as he war. 
adorable because of might and majesty and exclusive 
ness, so the ruler has been, to the common mind, the 



l.l VIM, QUESTIONS. 

Mt and mosl expressive image of God: and 
by this, men Bupposed they honored, glorified, and 
Supreme Being. Frmn earthly thrones and 
courts the prevailing theology has drawn almost all its 
leading ines and dogmas ; its entire Bystem being 

based on the idea thai God is more truly a King, Ma- 
trate, Judge, than Redeemer, Friend, and Father. 

We should remember that when the current system 
of theology was elaborated by the great teachers of the 
Western Church, the kingly idea was Oriental CaBsarism 

absolute monarchy. 8ays Dean Stanley, "The West- 
ern theology is essentially logical in form, and is based 
on Roman law." "The Latin divine succeeded to the 
Roman advocate." The subtleties of Etonian law, as ap- 
plied to the relations of God and man. which appear in 
the writings of Augustine, Aquinas, Calvin, and Luther, 
are unknown in the theology of the Greek Church. 

Then, again, the Bystem of the Western Church origi- 
nated when kingcraft was supreme; when the king ruled 
jure divino; when the man was at zero — by Ear the 
cheapest product of empire. The character of God was 
symbolized by kingly rule long before Runnymede wit- 

sed the granting of Magna Charta; when democ- 
racy v> warded as treason and atheism: when the 
end of government was the glory of the ruler instead of 
the welfare of the people. 

Since the time of Augustine almost every department 

human life and action has been revolutionized. Vet 
here, in theology, that Bhould be the most progressive 
of all the sciences, we .-till cling to systems and dogmas 
that a: . that attribute to our Heavenly Father 



&OJD URVBALBD, :>7 

the characteristics, the absolutism, even the tyrannic 
Eastern monarchs. Had Augustine lived in 
the political light ot Thomas Jefferson or Abraham Lin- 
coln, -had he known and received [heir principles of 
rernmentj how different must have been his Bystem 
o( theology ! 

Is it not strange that we still cling to this monarchic 
idea in the Church? that we still 086, to represent the 
most precious hopes and the snhlimest truths, a condi- 
tion of human society that we now look upon as false 
and dangerous? [s it not Btrange that we seek to exalt 
God, and to prefigure him to the mind, by a power we 
detest, and bya relation that we regard as but tem- 
porary and as always liable to lead to injustice and op- 
pression? We deny that absolute monarchy is the true, 
final system of human government. How then can we 
accept it as presenting a complete view of divine rela- 
tions ? Can we teach absolute truth by false analogies, 
or evolve correct views by false comparisons? Is it not 
a dangerous solecism to use the unreal, the pernicious, as 
symbols — not of the bad, but of the high and holy ? 

While earnestly thinking upon this subject not long 
ago, I turned to Jonathan Edwards, the great New 
England teacher, for help. I looked through the copi- 
ous index of his works in four large volumes. I looked 
for God as Father ; looked for Fatherhood, Divine Pa- 
ternity ; but could not find sermon, essay, chapter, nor 
even paragraph, on this, the Gospel symbol and revela- 
tion of God. But how r full, how exhaustive is Edwards on 
Divine Sovereignty— on God as absolute, unconditioned 
Will and Power ! Turning to other authors, some of 



1171X0 QUESTION - 

whom had been my personal and revered teachers, 1 
still tailed to find anything regarding the Paternity of 

God, but from all the great schools volume after 

volume, and page after page, devoted to the monarchic 

idea. 

Then came to my mind the first stanza I ever com- 
mitted to memory : 

'• .Men'- bookfl With heaps of chftfl are stored, 

God's Book doth goldeD grain afford; 

Then leave the ehalY, and spend thy pains 

In gathering up the golden grains 

Obedient to this voice and vision of my childhood, I 
turned to the New Testament, and was more surprised 
than ever to find that the words Icing ^ ruler, sovereign, 
do not occur in the four Gospels nor in the Acts of the 
Apostles. Indeed, sovereign or sovereignty — that favorite 
phrase — does not occur in the Bible ; yet hundreds of 
times is God spoken of as Father! In the Gospel of 
St. John alone one hundred and eighteen times is this 
title used. Over and over again, in every form> and 
variety of expression, does Jesns teach and dwell upon 
the Divine Paternity. Yet, dazzled with the false glare 
and splendor of earthly rulers, we have looked upon 
simple, natural, everlasting Fatherhood as secondary, 
figurative, or even as illusory; while kingship, though 
arbitrary and temporal, has been first and literal. 

\<»w which presents the Supreme most truly and 
fully, is it God as King or as "Our Father "? Shall 
we look upon the world as a kingdom or a household? 
upon man as subject or child? at God as the embodi- 
ment of law or love? Do you say he must express both ? 



&0D REVEALED. 89 

Well, both belong to the Father, only one belongs to 

the king. Shall we think of God as a person, or being 

goodness and sympathy, (, i as impersonal, as abstrac- 
tion? shall ire regard government as the end of the 
divine plan, the honor and glory ol law as the ultimate 
design, or shall we look at the welfare and glory of man, 
the child of God, as the end of all Divine Providence? 

Fatherhood and kingship present striking contrasts. 
Among kingly attributes are justice, sternness, dignity, 
severity, haughtiness, Beparateness, pride ; the king is 
impassible, unyielding, merciless, exacting. Among 
paternal attributes are pity, forbearance, condescension, 
tenden iiscipline, severity, sympathy, love. One 

IS ordained for the execution of law, the other is the 
embodiment of love. If Ave regard God as literally a 
king, we cannot confide in him, seek or commune with 
him as we can if he is our Father,— for then he ie 
personal, accessible, merciful, and the whole heart can. 
freely pour out its treasures in love and praise. 

The kingly relation is not natural, but arbitrary; not 
personal, but abstract, implying the powers and duties of 
an officer. It would seem as if many Christians have 
not in spiritual matters outgrown the old idea of " divine 
right/' or " kingly prerogative. n This certainly is now a 
burden upon the Church, for Roman imperialism did 
not originate in the divine character or government ; 
but mediaeval theology came from Caesarism. The king 
was not Godlike, but God was made kinglike, or fash- 
ioned after a false symbol, — an unworthy, misleading 
conception. 

Fatherhood implies rule and authority: not for the sake 



40 li vim; QUE8T10N8. 

of law and government, but as a means in love for the 
Bake of the child. It rests on natural relation-, demand- 
ing mercy and goodness. The king punishes, the father 
chat One is to uphold the institution, tin- other is 

the correction of love. One is in behalf of law, the 
other tor the child : and it may be severe, but never 
heartless. Chastisement is unknown to the king. "We 
have had fathers of our flesh who chastened us as seemed 
good to them ; but God [ehastens us] for our profit, that 
we might he partakers of his holiness." 

We know that executive clemency is often difficult 

SUld hazardous: and we know how simple and natural 
is paternal forgiveness. Hence those who interpret (rod 
by the monarchic idea, hound by the analogy, make 
iivine mercy, like that of the government, an intricate, 
urbitrary affair. There must he some ground for mercy, 
—something more than penitence and reformation; 
something to even up or appease justice, lest pardoning 
the guilty subvert the authority and stability of legal 
sanctions. 

Grace to the sinner is foreign to the rule and policy 
of CaBSar. It was often death even for tin' guiltless to 
approach the king in his "inner court " without a 
.special call. But how free our access to God! Is it not 
much more like coming to B wise, tender father than to 
a king? The gates of heaven are open, and all, from 
the farthest point and the lowest depth, may come to 

Godl 

Bow natural, fatherlike and childlike, are the mercy 
and the pleadings, the penitence and the pardon, of the 
-inner as Bhown in the Gospel! If Christ had presented 



00 1 > EBVEALSD. 41 

our elaborate, orthodox Boheme of Balvation, how \«»- 
luminoue must have been the Gospel records! What 
loads of theologic lumber would have pressed upon us! 
But instead of this, how plain, brief, and simple are the 
Divine Institutes! Listen to the Saviour; "And the 

prodigal said, I will arise and go to my father, and will 
say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and 

in thy right; 1 am no more worthy to be called thy son: 

make me as one of thy hired servants. And he ar 
and came to his father. But while lie was yet afar oil', 
his father saw him, and [like a true father that he was] 
ran with compassion to meet him, and fell on his neek, 
and kissed him. And the father ordered the best robe to 
hide hia rags, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on 
his feet, and commanded that a feast be prepared at 
once; for said lie, This my sou was dead, and is alive 
again: he was lost, and is found." 

This is Christ's statement of the ground and hope of 
mercy. But we ask, What king ever so watched and 
waited, and received a returning, rebellious subject? 

And indeed is not all expressed in the publican's 
prayer — "God be merciful to me a sinner !"? We are 
reminded of the prayer it is said Wickliffe frequently 
offered — " Good Lord, save me gratis !" 

When Xapoleon was at the height of his glory, as he 
was walking in a hall of the palace, a fair young girl, 
whose tears had bribed the guard — ran to the Emperor, 
and falling at his feet, she sobbed in a delirium of emo- 
tion, "Pardon, Sire! oh, pardon for my father!" 

"And who is your father? Who are you?" said Na- 
poleon. 



42 IJVIMi QUESTIONS, 

u I am Mi>> Lajolia, Sire, and my father is condemned 
to die." 

" Ah, miss," said tin* Emperor, u but this is the second 

time your father has conspired against the State; I can 

do nothing tor you." 

" Alas, Sire !" she exclaim. -d. u I know it — it is the 

ond time; bnl the first time my papa was innocent 
and now I do not ask tor justice, but tor mercy— oh, 
mercy. Sire, mercy for my poor father!" 

Taking the little uplifted hand in both of his. Napo- 
leon tenderly raised the Bobbing child, and in a voice 
shaken by tears he said, "Well, my child, 1 will, — j 
for your sake, I will pardon your father!" 

Napoleon was more Godlike in this tenderness than 
when, robed in all earthly splendor, he mounted the 
throne of France and the world trembled at his name. 
He was dressed in more divinity than when he grasped 

and wore the iron crown of Charlemagne. 

Did you, my brother, when a child, having sinned 
against your father or mother, go grieved, conscience- 
smitten, penitent, asking for pardon? So now you 
may seek the mercy and find the forgiveness of your 
Heavenly Father. 

Vet how difficult it lias been for men to receive this 
good twins — this truth of supreme Fatherhood, as op- 
posed to Oriental imperialism! We need spiritual de- 
velopment to admire and revere as we should that which 

is far nobler than any kingly attribute. 
Men differ in defining glory. The rude man or tribe 

admires brute courage, might of arm in wielding battle 
a\ and sword: not so the man of Christ. 



GOD REVEALED* 48 

How different mas! God'e glory appear to men like 

Channing and Jacob Abbott on the one hand, and to 

•k Hawk and Teeumseh on the other! Ajb men rise 

in the BCale Oi moral being they grow away from the 

worship oi physical force and its conquests grow up 
towards tenderness, compassion, and divine Bacrifica 

it has been observed by our teachers thai the epochs of 
history, or the successive dispensations oi Divine Mercy, 
are marked by different divine names. God lias revealed 
himself according to our weakness and our growth. As 
men have been able to receive light, higher and brighter 

have been the revelations of the Divine Character. 

"In the Patriarchal age the oldest Hebrew form by 
which the idea of Divinity is expressed is 'El Elohim/ 
'The Strong One.' But to Moses a new name, and with 
tt a new truth, was introduced. 'And God said unto 
Moses. I am that I am! IamJehovah; I appeared unto 
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by the name of El-Shaddai 
[God Almighty]; but by my name Jehovah was I not 
known unto them/ . . . Then a new turn was given to 
this name under the Hebrew monarchy, and God became 
to Israel 'Jehovah Sabaoth,' 'The Lord of Hosts.'" 

And when the Great Teacher began his ministry, the 
Gospel age was also marked by a new name applied to 
Him who had been called the " Strong," the " Almighty," 
the "Eternal." At the beginning of his ministry Jesus 
£ave us the new name of "Our Father;" and but one 
step more was possible in this progressive revelation, and 
that we have in the assurance with which the Gospel 
closes, that "God is love." 

" God is a Father-king ; his subjects are his own chil- 



44 Liviya QUESTIONS. 

dren, and hia governmenl of them, in its origin, its spir- 
it, its laws, and its penalties, is strictly paternal God's 
Kingship ia a figure ; bia Fatherhood lb the profoundeat 
reality/ 1 * 

Then, in regard to what is called the philosophy of sal- 
vation, it seems plain that the vicarious sacrifice of Christ 
is in harmony, not with law. but love: not with King- 
ship, hnt the infinite affection of Divine Fatherhood 
The prinoiple of vieariouaneas— of love suffering in he- 
half of the sinful, the Lost — is the crown and glory of 
the Gospel, Bui such a crown never graced a mon- 
arch's brow, for it has to do with the empire of the 
heart alone 

The vicarious sacrifice of Christ is not a legal make- 
shift, not an effort to evade or chancre the course of jus- 
tice, pr dodge in any way the law of God : but Jesus 
"came to seek and save the losl f* "to save his people 
from their sins :" and he Buffered, the just for the unjust, 
that he might bring us to God. He came " to justify," 
or, plainly, to make righteous, to renew, to make clean. 
He came, and "offered himself to purge our conscience 
from dead works to serve the living (oxl." standing, not 
for a legal quibble, but a precious attainment. He came 
to bear- "to hear away our sorrows and our sicknesses," 
to take away our sins and reconcile uato the Father; 
for "through our Lord Jesus Christ we have now re- 
ceived the atonement." lie came to just ify : that is, to 
make u> pure, to make us holy. To satisfy a legal 
demand maybe a trifle, hut to attain to a character of 
eternal excellence — who can estimate its value? 

* Dr. Foung'a -Christ of History :" quoted by Dr. Cocker In 
" Th i ODceptioo of the World." 



GOD RBVEALBD, ■!.*■ 

Neither law nor any form <>f justice can possibly de- 
mand Buffering from the innocent in behali of the 
wicked : nor can the guiltless Buffer as a ground for the 
remission ol the pains and penalties justly due the 

wicked Uw their Crimes. Bui love, and love alone, can 

and does offer itself to Buffer and die,— to deliver, not 
from justice, but from sin: that the wicked may repent, 
and all men, believing in a Father's mercy, may return 
to God, who will abundantly pardon. Christ is not a 

ground, hut a power: not a condition, but an inspiration. 
He redeems from sin by leading US to love righteousness ; 
and saves by making us Btrong to desire the true, and 
ir faithful in doing the right. 

How strange and dark are our theological systems! 
There is in kingship nothing analogous to the suffering 
and death of Christ; while we find in paternity that 
love is essentially vicarious. " There is a Gethsemane 
hid in all affection ; and when the fit occasion comes, its 
heavy groaning will be heard even as it was in Christ." 
Because of this love, and not because of any official 
appointment, plan, or scheme, did Christ bear our sor- 
rows, and bear — always to bear away — our sins. Xot 
that he came to suffer and die ; but he came because of 
the love of God, and because of love he took hold on 
man to give repentance, faith, and salvation. There 
can be no salvation aside from character, and there can 
be no divine character aside from love. 

The life and death of Christ were the expression of 
his great love, a revelation of the Divine Nature, an 
epiphany of the heart of the Eternal ! 



46 LI VI Mi QUESTIONS. 

•() Bountiful] ( > Beautiful! Can power or wisdom add 
Freeh features to a life so munificent and glad? 
Y" spirits blessed, In endless rot, who on that vision gaze, 
Salute the Sacred Heart with all your worshipful amaze, 
An<l adore, while with ecstatic skill the Three in One ye scan, 
The mercy that bath planted there that blessed heart <>f man." 

1- • | — ible that the barbaric splendor of kingship 
can represenl Bach love, Bucb sacrifice, and such healing 

of >in? that we might speedily outgrow this false and 
monstrous sj mbolism ! 

" He that hath seen me hath seen tlie Father." We 
truly see OUT God in Jesus Christ. What hope does this 
inspire ! What ground for comfort, confidence, and 
peace I 

A botanist in the Highlands saw a rare plant clinging 
to the side of the precipice* far down the wall of rock. 
Calling a little Scotch lad, he desired by means of a rope 
to lower him down the dizzy height* that he might 
gather for him the precious ilower. The hoy was tempt- 
ed, dazzled by the large reward the stranger offered. 
Be looked at him keenly, examined the rope, peered 
over the edge of the cliff — but was in doubt. At last 
he exclaimed, flushed with hope and confidence, ""5 
I will L r <> down if my father holds the rope." That is 
faith. And we may feel in every peril, in every depth, 

though we hang over the edge of eternity — still our Fa- 
ther holds US in his love. His smile is heaven, his 
frown is hell ; and u forasmuch as we are the offspring 
of God, may he send forth the Spirit of His Son into 
our hearts, crying, Abba — that is. Father !" 



III. 

Tin: \ami:li>s Prophet. 

"And the king Baid unto the man of God, Come home with me, 
and refresh thyself, and I will give thee a reward. And the man 
-nl Baid unto the king, If thou will give me half thine house, 
1 will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water 
in this place : for so was it charged me by the word of the Lord, 
saving, Thou shall eat no bread nor drink water, neither return 
by the way that thou earnest." — 1 Kings xiii. 7-9. 

"The man of God" went not back with the king. 
All the glory of royalty could not seduce him ; but he 
was not proof against one who came in the livery of 
Heaven. He went back with a lying prophet — and he 
went back to die ! His reply to the king — "If thou 
w T ilt give me half thine house, I will not go in with 
thee" — w r as not vain boasting. With courage and fidel- 
ity he had discharged his divine commission, and all 
the blandishments of a court were powerless to tempt 
him from the line of strict obedience. But the preten- 
sion and falsehood of one assuming to be a fellow-pro- 
phet — a servant of the Most High — easily beguiled him, 
and with smooth, deceitful words led him to disobey — 
led him to speedy death! 

But let us look more in detail at the instructive his- 
tory connected with our theme, and seek to enforce some 

47 



LIVING QUESTIONS. 
of the 16880D8 that arr presented hy the story of the 

Prophet. 
The Jewish nation reached the highest point of its 
temporal prosperity about four hundred and fifty years 
after its establishment in the land of promise by Joshua. 

It was about four hundred and fifty years from the 
death of Moses to the dedication of the Temple that 
Solomon built. From this height of power and glory it 
plunged suddenly down into confusion, disruption, and 
vreaknt Thia favored nation was not shorn of its 

glory and brought to the verge of ruin by foreign in- 
vaders. Xo such enemy thundered at the gates of Jeru- 
salem. Zion had little to fear — Zion, pure and obedient 
to Jehovah, had nothing to fear from such foes! Hei 
impregnable walls and towers defended by her sons, (]v- 
h"\i\r{] by the Lion tribe of Judah, shielded, guarded by 
the Almighty — well might the city in her purity and 
unity laugh all her besiegers to scorn. 

No, not by invasion but by corruption was Israel 
overcome. Here lies the danger both to nations and to 
individuals. It is not so much because of enemies from 
without that we have reason to fear, but because of ene- 
mies within: not the defiant champion among our foes, 
but the traitor inside the lines, among our friends. Not 
by those who come with bold assault, with martial 
tread and blare of trumpet, but by those whose whis- 
per- are BOfl aa love and fatal as sin — by such insidious 
and home-bred enemies are cities destroyed, nations 
Overcome, and men brought down to death. The world 
in arms could not endanger or destroy the chosen people 
BO long as they were loyal to Jehovah. In their fidelity 



TEE WAMELE88 PROPHET. 48 

he Qod of their fathers they were invincible. u How 
aid one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand 
to flight"! 

And so it is with each heart in our moral conflicts. 

If we are faithful, God is our shield ; and no temptation, 
though the Devil show us all the kingdoms of the world 
and offer us their glory, has power to cast down oven 
the Feeblest as a helpless victim. The embattled hosts 
of evil are impotent before a heart that heats with loy- 
alty to God. It is not the flashing lights that gleam and 
glitter over the inviting gates of dissipation that we have 

most to dread, hut the baleful phosphorescence of our 
own lusts, that light " the way to hell, going down to the 
chambers of death." 

Satan must as truly gain our consent before he de- 
stroys, aa the Lord before he saves ; for hell, as well as 
heaven, waits on our choice, and it is only when "drawn 
away by our own lust, and enticed," that our overthrow 
is secured and our defeat made certain. Lost nations 
and lost souls are guilty of self-destruction. So it was 
with this elect commonwealth. The enemy that men- 
aced and at last broke into quivering fragments the 
united tribes of Israel was nourished in her own bosom. 

Dwelling among her fertile hills, with far more politi- 
cal liberty and religious truth than the kingdoms around, 
she stood a light of God to the dark, bewildered nations 
of the ancient world. But the seeds of dissolution were 
sown by her most splendid king. It is easy to find the 
cause of the overthrow of the empire of Solomon. Lux- 
ury, idolatry, polygamy, tyranny, destroyed the unity 
and glory of Israel. Any one of these sins has often 



LIVING QUESTIONS. 

been stronger than a nation's defenses, and many a fair 
be and opulent city has fallen from luxury or tyr- 
anny alone : but combined, no walls or towers or ar- 
mies can preserve from their malignant, fatal power. 
Prom the purest of youthful prince-, the most pious of 

youthful rulers, Solomon the Peaceful became one of the 
most exacting, luxurious, and dissolute of Oriental mon- 

arehs. Despotic in his demands, imperious in his de- 
Bires, he laid the world under tribute to his lusts; and 
yet with all its treasures at his feet, he cursed it, be- 
cause his appetite was insatiable. 

He built a house of prayer for all nations at Jerusa- 
lem, and dedieated it to the God of his fathers. What a 
prayer he offered at its consecration ! " The first public 
recognition of prayer, as distinct from sacrifice— of the 
spiritual, as distinct from the ceremonial, mode of ap- 
proaching God — ia the prayer of Solomon at the dedica- 
tion of the Temple/' Yet we find the ideal prince, the 
author of this sublime prayer, bowing at idol shrines — at 
the basest, foulest altars that the blindness and deprav- 
ity of man ever erected ! 

After his h>ng, gilded reign, so splendid, yet so fatal, 
u Solomon slept with his fathers, and was buried in the 
city of David." Then Rehoboam, his son, went to She- 
chem, a city of Ephraim, to be crowned king. There he 
met the assembled nation. But it was an unusual 
gathering, — a solemn, an impressive meeting of "the 

whole congregation of Israel." It was evident this mass 
Of people had not come merely to witness a coronation 

as a festival. Stern, rugged, dissatisfied, yet hopeful; 
conscious of power, hence dignified; keenly feeling their 



THE NAMBLB8S PROPHET. 51 

oppression, yel patriotic loyal, if the young king will 
heed their petition and redress their wrongs. Bui thej 

were not to he trilled with: a great, patient, Iiberty- 
lOYing people who had long bent under the yoke of op- 
pression, hut who knew their rights — who felt the time 

was ripe for reform ; who knew their rights and dared 
maintain them. Thai B68 of expectant people was just 
now like the great (\vv\) in a calm ; it was also like the 
an that slumbers, hut that "in the visitation of the 
winds" may he suddenly roused, and roll its Coaming bil- 
lows in awful fury and resistless power. 

There was vxwx element of moral sublimity in the 
attitude of this assembled nation. They did not desire 
rebellion or revolution, but they demanded reform, and 
in this case VOX populi, vox Dei. Hence, before they 
bow in allegiance to Rehoboam — before the shout goes 
up, " Long live the king!" — they humbly present a pe- 
tition through Jeroboam, a strong man of Ephraim. 

" Thy father," said the petitioners, "made our yoke 
grievous; now, therefore, ease thou somewhat the griev- 
ous servitude of thy father, and his heavy yoke that he 
put upon us, and we will serve thee." Rehoboam re- 
plied, " Come again unto me after three days." Then 
like a wise prince " he took counsel with the old men 
that had stood before Solomon his father." They said to 
him, "Hear and heed the cry of thy people ; yield to 
their just demands, and they will be thy servants for- 
ever." But in his madness he turned from these aged 
counselors, and asked the young men that were about 
him — the youthful bloods and madcaps of the court — 
and they said to him in their brainless arrogance, " Tell 



52 LIVING QUB87J0m 

the people this : M v Father made your yoke heavy, 
but my little finger shall be thicker than my father's 

loins. . . . My father chastised you with whips, but I 

will chastise you with scorpions." 

S Jeroboam and all the people came on the third 
day: and the heir to the throne of David, following the 
counsel of his wild associates, u spake roughly," refus- 
ing all redress — treating the humble demand for justice 
with the haughty contempt of a tyrant. 

"Then when all Israel saw that the king hearkened 
n<»t unto them/' the storm burst, and that most in- 
tense, persistent of all people, who had wailed so calmly, 
was indeed like the sea when the storm drives its slum- 

ring billows into wild majesty. The loyal, the op- 
pressed, the freedom-loving, at once started up in their 
power, and sweeping over all obstacles, their intended 
reform became in a moment a rebellion, a revolution. 
How fierce and terrible the cry of the outraged tribes, 
as, answering the king, their defiant shout went up from 
the hills of Ephraim: "What portion have we in 
David? Neither have we inheritance in the son of 
Jesse : to your tents, () Israel : now see to thine own 
house, David !" Bo the nation was divided. Jeroboam 
was chosen to rule over the ten tribes that revolted, 
while Etehohoam reigned at Jerusalem over Judah and 
Benjamin. 

T<» provide tor the religious wants of the northern 
kingdom, Jeroboam established a shrine at Bethel, that 
patriarchal sanctuary — " oldest of all t he sacred places of 
brael and of the world." Thereon the hill of Bethel 

he raised a temple, and set up golden calves, saying. 



Tin: NAMBLS8S PBOPHBT, 69 

u Behold thy gods, <> [srael!" On the day appointed tor 
the dedication, as the king stood before the altar on 

which he was to offer unholy incense, amid the hush of 

the assembled thousands, the solemnity of the imp 

sive scene was suddenly broken, or perhaps enhanced, 
by a strange interruption. An unknown, a name 
prophet was seen on the edge of the crowd, forcing his 

way towards the king. He looked neither to right nor 

left: at the multitude, the monarch or the temple. Ob- 
livious of everything Bave the altar at which Jeroboam 
stood, he fixed his eyes on that with so stern and wild 
a look, that the astonished assemblage parted before 

him and he passed on in silenee. The single aim, the 
solemn mien, the persistent manner of the strange man 
impressed the multitude with a feeling of expectancy 
and awe. A sudden hush fell upon the vast congrega- 
tion, as if they waited for the voice of God. He drew 
near, and then, as if alone, he cried, as the smoke of in- 
cense rose: "0 altar, altar, thus saith Jehovah: Behold, 
a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah 
by name; and upon thee shall he sacrifice the priests 
of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and 
men's bones shall they burn upon thee. And this is the 
sign which Jehovah hath spoken: Behold, the altar shall 
be rent, and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured 
out." 

The terrified, indignant king flushed with fear and 
anger at such an uncourtly, heretical interruption, 
stretched out his hand towards the intruder as he called 
his guards to seize him. "Lay hold on him I 33 
But he was himself seized with terror as he found his 



64 LIVING QUE8TI0N8, 

extended arm suddenly stiffened, as if "dried up, so 
thai he could not draw it in to him again/ 1 And as 
the multitude wait in anxious dread to Bee the issue of 
these strange events, the ground is shaken ; it becomes 

billowy, the hills tremble as at the touch of God, Kbal 
and (ierizim, that tower above them, reel on their deep 
foundations as an earthquake smokes and thunders by. 
And while they look, " behold, the altar is rent, and the 
ashes poured out>" according to the sign of the man of God. 

The afflicted, humbled ruler then besought the 
prophet "to entreat the Lord that his hand might be 
restored again." So the man of God prayed for the 
king, and his hand became as it was before. 

This nameless prophet — known to us only as "the 
man of God from Judah" — had thus far discharged 
with fidelity his divine commission. He had come to 
reprove ; he had without fear or favor pronounced the 
judgment of the Lord against the idolatry of Israel and 
her king. He had been faithful amid the faithless. 
He had dared to stand alone ; to rebuke a nation for its 
folly ; to reprove a king even to his face. In all this he 
had been obedient, faithful, heroic. But there came a 
more decisive test of fidelity. He could face danger, lie 
could stand alone : his courage was of firmer fiber than 
the soldier's who wins a mural crown. 

But now he was to face, not death, but flattery ; not 
frowns, but praise and kindness. "And the king said 
unto the man of God, Come home with me, and refresh 
thy8elf, and 1 will L r ive thee a reward. And the man of 
God said unto the king, If thou will give me half thine 
house, I will not go in with thee ; neither will 1 eat nor 



THE Y.l XBLBSB PROPHET 

drink in this place: tor bo was it charged me by the 
Lord, Neither eat oor drink, norturn again by the same 
way thai thou earnest." 
Bach was the definite command <>f the Lord. Tin* 

son tor this peculiar injunction was not given, but it 
was reasonable, and the lirst duty was prompt, impl 

dience. Perhaps it was to preservethe prophet from 
the cruel spirit ot pagan (anacticism, or from greater 
dangers, the temptations and bewitchments that lustful 
idolatry might place in his way; for every appeal was 

made by the devotees of these shameless altars to seduce 

the pure from their allegiance to the true God. Hut 

whatever the dangers, his peace and safety would be 
secured by prompt, exact obedience. 

Having fulfilled his stern mission, having rejected the 

offers of the king, the prophet now starts on his home- 
ward way. Though fasting, he is sustained by the joy 
of obedience to God, and, conscious of his presence and 
approbation, lias u meat to eat that others know not of." 
The rough way becomes an ample thoroughfare ; while 
sweet peace and light within cast a halo like the golden 
touch of heaven over the rude rock and the desert sand. 
But the man of God from Judah was not to escape bo 
ily. Various are the traps and snares of Satan! The 
temptation that might entice one would be repulsive to 
another. Flattery that might beguile one heart would 
be a warning like the serpent's rattle to another. So 
here, the friendship, the offers, of a king were powerless. 
But let not a man boast because he is proof against one 
temptation, for another trial may reveal his weakness. 
There are both warning and instruction in the classic 



66 LIVING QUB8TT0NB. 

story of Achilles, who was invulnerable in every part of 
his body save one — the little Bpace covered by the 
mother's hand when Bhe dipped him in the mystic river ; 
yet at last he was pierced in the one unguarded part by 
a fatal arrow, ami fell even at the moment of his 
triumph. And this man of God was not invulnerable 
t<» the arrows of temptation. 

" The gray-haired saint may fail at last; 
The snrot guide a wanderer prove ; 

Death, only, binds us fast 
To the bright Bhores of love." 

There dwelt in Bethel an old prophet who had known 
and served God, but was an apostate now. His sons 
had seen and heard the events of the day : and as they 
were hastily told, " their father said unto them, What 
way went he? And lie went after the man of God, and 
found him Bitting under an oak. Art thou, said lie, the 
man of God that came from Judah ? And he said , I 
am." Then he urged the prophet to return with him 
and eat bread, lint he replied as lie had to the king, re- 
peating that he was forbidden to eat or drink in Bethel. 
Hut said the tempter, " 1 am a prophet also as thou art, 
and an angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord, 
Baying, Bring him hack with thee into thine house, that 
he may eat and drink. Bat he lied unto him. So he 
went hack with him." And as we said at the begin- 
ning, he went hack to die ! 

No warning came. No thunder-peal startled him. 
No strong hand, no pleading voice, arrested his fatal dis- 
obedience. He might have had some doubts, some 



THE NAMELESS PROPHET. B7 

sharp misgivings or dark forebodings, some twinges of 
oonscience. It may be his heart Whispered a warning 

DOt to trust in man, not even a prophet Or an angel, 

when he already had a "Thussaith the Lord." fee, he 

must have feared, ami his better judgment pleaded with 

him — "Go n<>t back! Did not the Lord hid thee 

hasten? Tarry not, hut return with all speed home to 
thy native hills !" Bat he was faint with hunger ; and 

then this venerable prophet who told of the vision of an 
angel, and who seemed so fair and good, beguiled him ; 
so he hushed the whispered warnings and quieted lus 

fears, — and was led to the slaughter. For as thev sat at 
the table there came suddenly a strange, wild light into 
the eyes of the old prophet, as with flushed face, and 
extended hand like the index of fate, he cried, as the 

messenger of retribution: " Thus saith Jehovah: Foras- 
much as thou hast disobeyed Jehovah, and hast not kept 
the commandment which Jehovah thy God commanded 
thee, thy body shall not come unto the sepulcher of thy 
fathers." 

And so it was. For when he left Bethel — no doubt 
now in fear and sorrow — he had gone but a short dis- 
tance, when a lion sprang out of a thicket and slew him. 
His body was found by the wayside, and the old prophet 
who had deceived him caused it to be buried in his own 
tomb. 

In this story of the Xameless Prophet — or, as the 
Bible calls him, " The man of God that came out of 
Judah" — we have presented to us the importance of 
exact, the duty of implicit, obedience. It presents a 
divine exhortation and a warning. 



68 LI VI Mi QUE8TI0N8 

Would you, my young friends, solve the problem of 

life, BO as to show on every hand and from every point 
of view that life Lb worth living — that it is a holy, 
precious gift? Would you tread into dust the blas- 
phemy thai declares this life of ours to he the work of 
chance, or the sport of i'ate? Would you reveal its 
beauty, its value, its sublimity? Then be obedient to 
the commands of your Almighty Father. Would you 
find the secret of power and success? Would you win 
the earth, and have its forces do your bidding? Would 
you plow and harvest the <vi'(\, and make the wilder- 
ness blossom as the rose? Would you exalt the val- 
leys and make the mountains low, demand service 
from the forces of nature and make the demigods of 
the past your slaves? Would you be true alchemists, 
changing the baser metals into gold? Would you con- 
quer in every conflict, win in every strife, succeed in 
every effort, and when at last you fall, still rise above the 
stars, — when at last you are defeated, be more than a 
conqueror, gaining the victor's crown of eternal life? 
Then with fidelity obey the commands of God. Do the 
divine bidding. Keep the commandments, — not only 
the ten, but all belonging to the whole wide range of 
the divine government; not only those written on the 
red granite of Sinai by the linger of Jehovah, but the 
laws written upon the rocks of every mountain, the soil 
of every plain; on each leaf and drop and star; on the 

golden pages of the Bible, and on the heart and con- 
science of every man. 

We are BO liable to make obedience, to make religion, 

separate, narrow, ecclesiastical ; so liable to think that 



77//; KAMBLE8S PROPHET. 59 

Sinai is the only sacred mountain* that God baa issued 
only ten commands ; that the Bible is the only book 
that tells ol Ins power, provideno . and judgment ; thai 
we serve him mainly in the church by our songe and 
sermons* meet him only in the temple* and worship 
him <>nlv a> we spread our hand- and how our heads 
in outward devotion. 

But how false and narrow ! 0* our hills and valleys 
are touched* marked by the footprints of God* and are 
made bright and sacred by his loving presence ! They 
are as near and dear to Heaven as Horeh or Zion; while 
his wise, beneficent* resistless laws Becure and make 
perfect in every part the universe. The commands of 
I — who shall number them? The scepter of infinite 
power reaches across the entire range of being* for every- 
thing is included in the wise government of the Al- 
mighty. There are laws for matter and for mind, for the 
rational and the irrational; laws of necessity for the one, 
and liberty for the other; laws of resistless force for ma- 
terial things, and a moral code for those who are created 
in the divine image. We all know that the harmony 
and adjustments of the material world depend on the 
execution of the ordinances of Heaven. 

And we know that in the moral world, in the sphere 
of rational, responsible action, it is forever the same. 
We are pervaded by, immersed in, the loving government 
of the Infinite Father! And there is no peace, lite, 
success; no wealth, nobility* glory or manhood, unless 
we are in harmony with the will and obedient to the 
laws of God. There is no neutral ground, no border- 
land, without divine precept and sanction; no nook or 



60 LTVBTO QUESTIONS, 

corner where we may be tree from duty as the sweeping 
train of obligation thnnders by, We can neither fly 
from ourselves nor from the Divine Presence. 

Over every avenue and department of existence, over 

each heart and home, is inscribed the one talismanic word, 

sdtence, afl the condition of all good,, the shield from 
all evil, the secret of all power. Fidelity to the ordi- 
nances of our being is the one price of all complete. 
abundant life. Not that it is hard to obey these pre- 
cepts: no, for the danger, the difficulty, the toil, the 
friction, crash, ruin, and death, come from violating or 
neglecting divine enactments. When the locomotive 
engine obeys the law of its creation, how smoothly it 
glides along its steel track! Hut if its path is obstructed, 
if the switch is misplaced, if flying trains meet on their 
one road, then conies the u accident," more truly the 
manslaughter, not so much by the providence of God as 
by the reckless improvidence of man ! Not that in this 
case, or in any case, law is really broken: that is impos- 
sible. It may be violated, but we are broken, tortured, 
killed, " by attempting to proceed against law, instead of 
with it. And the law goes on, more terrible than an 
army with banners, while the fragments are left bleed- 
ing and burning behind." 

Sere is the open secret of all prosperity, both of na- 
tions and of individuals. And when we see the wrecks of 
men or the ruins of cities, we see where retribution has 
followed sin, where judgment, swift or slow, has come 
upon transgression. It may have fallen like the thun- 
derbolt, or it may have come by slow decay: but certainly 
the wreck of mind or the ruin of power and grandeui 



THE VTA VELB8& PROPHET. 61 

must oome, can only oorae, through disobedience b the 
septa of Heaven; tor the judgments ol God are ae in- 
evitable as his mere; ia free and bound! "The 
mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon 
them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's 

children; to BUCh as keep his covenant, and to those that 

remember his commandments to do them." 

Obedience is our r61e. And there is no escape, no 
indulgence, no compromise; if wo have sinned, "be sure 

it will find us out." Wo may bury our evil deeds under 

mountains of creeds and prayers, fathoms deep under 
the waters of baptism; we may seek to cover them undci 
hottest Zealand loudest professions, bu1 they will come 
from their graves to plague, affrighl and whip; corneas 
the dread messengers of eternal justice. 

Obedience is our role. It is our life. When we have 
a "Thus saith the Lord/' however uttered, whether 
by Scripture or by conscience or by Providence, no fer- 
vor, sacrifice, devotion, or gift can take its place. How 
solemn the rebuke of Samuel the prophet to the diso- 
bedient king ! And Samuel said unto Saul: "Hath the 
Lord as great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices, 
as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is 
better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of 
rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and 
stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou 
hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected 
thee from being king.'' 

The Mohammedans have a maxim that "One hour 
in the execution of justice is worth seventy years of 
prayer:" and this, many Christians might well remember 



62 LI VI Mi QUESTIONS. 

Do n<>t. I beg of y<ui. give place to the blasphemous 
thought thai obedience is drudgery — thai God isa hard 
Blaster. "His commandments are nol grievous. '* 
u Blessed arc they who walk in the laws of the Lord." 
God's will is Forever good will, for he is love, Eden 
was losl through disobedience, bul Paradise may be re- 
gained; for "Blessed are they that do his command- 

incuts, that they may have right to the tree of life." 

There can be no true liberty, no stability, virtue, hap- 
piness, heroism, life nor heaven, without this primal, 

this comprehensive duty of obedience to God — unless we 
love the Universal Father and are in sympathy with his 
way and will. Then, the slightest action may be noble 
and the humblest life sublime. 

" A servant with this clause 
Makes drudgery divine ; 
Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws, 
Makes that and the action fine." 

Let us make brief mention of some elements of obedi- 
ence. 

1. AVe should seek to put in sharp, clear, contrast 
right and wrong. We should educate, perfect so far as 
possible, cur moral perceptions. There is a well-known 
color-blindness — unavoidable, perhaps : but we may be 
so indifferent to the claims of justice, to the demands of 
honesty ami honor, as to blunt and stupefy our moral 
nature, bo that " having eyes we shall see not ": but this 
blindness is Culpable, and every blunder is a proof of 
guilt. Or we may BO train the heart and conscience that 
the whole being shall be intensely sensitive to the pres- 
ence of evil, and all wrong-doing shall be repugnant, 



THE NAMELESS PROPHET. 

If we fail to u exercise ourselves unto holiness" we 
shall lose the gifl of moral insight, and not deted as we 
should the eternal distinction between sin and righteous- 
ness, virtue and vice. How needful for us to have clear 
on, not to penetrate the mysteries of God, but to rec- 
our true Friends and our toes, to distinguish the 

dai: :nals, to know the path of duty and to see the 

star of hope! Sin disguised, Bin in stolen robes, is most 
to be feared, and we have reason to pray for light to dis- 
cern clearly— and then to work as well as pray, that, - 
ing, we may hapten towards the truth, the goal of holi- 
ness, shutting our eyes against the charm of unholy 
lusts, 

'!. When we have a "Thus saith the Lord" there 
should be no halting, no parley or truce, no weighing of 
causes or claims. That is final. Here is one of the in- 
structive lessons that the history of Balaam teaches. 
Having the word of God, having the decisive answer of 
Jehovah, he yet again and again besought the Lord, as if 
to change, to pervert the Almighty. He greatly desired 
that an evil thing might be made right ; for he wanted 
to gratify his lusts and still be obedient to God and con- 
science. He was sorrowful because it is sinful to sin ; 
it pained him to feel that it was both dangerous and 
wicked to do wrong, for he was anxious to gratify the 
most intense selfishness without being sinful. So he 
continued to pray, not saying, "Thy will be done," but 
hoping by prayer and sacrifice to make his malignant will 
the will of God. He felt that if God would but change, 
then the wrong he desired to do would become right, 
then he might curse Israel and they would be cursed. 



04 LIVING QUESTIONS. 

while he would be justified and rewarded. But right 
and wrong depend not upon any arbitrary will or enact- 
ment. Bight is right, as God is God, — uncreated, 
eternal. 

Bow dangerous it is to wish that a had deed were not 
sinful, so that we might he safe in its performance! 
And yel 1 fear we often harbor such pernicious, fatal 
desires. But God is not mocked. We shall be paid 
in full by the master we serve. We shall reap that 
which we have sown. 

:;. Never be presumptuous; seeing how near we may 
go to evil and yet escape its taint, how near we may go 
to the verge of ruin, how near we may drive along the 
edge of the canyon of death and yet escape with our 
livt Many have come to swift destruction in the 

rapids of Niagara* through a foolish ambition and a vain 
over-confidence in their power to endure, their ability to 
resist that terrible torrent. 

Boldness in a good cause is golden. When flame or 
flood, the foaming breakers or the roaring storm, are 
dared for wife or child, or the redemption of any hu- 
man being, we hail the deliverer as a hero, or if he dies 
to save, his memory is precious. But to risk ourselves 
for the sake of the risk, to put our lives, ourselves, in 
pawl) for nothing, and where the Devil may claim the 
pledge — this is the mockery of courage, the silly presump- 
tion ()f fool- j 

T<> permit or encourage familiarity with evil is to 
tempt the Tempter — to throw our glove to the Destroyer! 
We may laugh to scorn the warnings of love, the instruc- 
tions of wisdom, but those who thus despise are like the 



THE NAMSLBB8 PROPHET 66 

summer moth flying straight .towards the consuming 
flan 

4. There must be no listening to the Tempter, nodal- 
lying with the Devil, do hearing or heeding man be he 
preacher, priest, or prophet,— when we have the divine 
Word. We must obey promptly; uol blindly, but with 
Bingle eye and united heart ami determined purpose. 

Hut this is not all; for. 

ttly, the conditions of all true obedience are, not 

our will, strength, or courage; but that upon which 

these virtues also depend — love, faith, and hope. The 
atesi of these — in trial, in working or waiting, in ad- 
vance or retreat, in life or death, in achieving or endur- 
ing — "the greatest is charity. " Without this we are 

nothing. The prophet, the priest, the apostle, — the 
loudest profession, the most costly sacrifice, the most 
zealous Credo — all are nothing. 

But inspired by love, no burden is heavy, no yoke is 
galling ; there is no height we may not scale, no chasm 
we may not cross in behalf of its object, or to do the will 
of the king of the heart ! Toil is rest, and sacrifice is 
bliss. With confidence and love the feeble are stronger 
than the "sons of Anak, v and the timid become heroes 
and heroines ; fear is abolished, and in every conflict we 
are more than conquerors. 0, when the bows of hope 
span our pathway, when faith and love inspire our 
hearts, the service of our Father is the widest liberty, his 
commands are our life, his presence a foretaste of 
heaven ! 



IV. 
The Office of Conscience. 

11 Having a good conscience." — 1 Peter iii. 16. 

\\ i; oughl not to be careless or indifferent regarding 
our reputation. " A good name is rather to be chosen 

than great riches." "It is better than precious oint- 
ment." The estimation of our fellow-men is of large 
importance tons; but reputation is not for a moment 
to be compared in value with character. How I appear 
to others is not a triilo ; but what I am — what I am to 
myself and to the impartial Father — must be a perpetual 
source of pleasure or pain. It is hard to be censured, 
delightful to be praised; but the joy of an approving 
Conscience IS the smile of Heaven, while the tortures of 
remorse are intolerable. 

There is no boldness like honesty, no cowardice like 
guilt. Conscious of purity and justice, we can, if we 
have any spirit of manhood, stand alone. If the heart 
approve-, all the idle clamor of the world cannot de- 
Btroy our repose; but if our heart condemns, there is 
no peace though we pitch our tents in an Eden, though 
the skv is cloudless and the sea without a wrinkle; for 
a nameless dread, a strange fear, will possess and haunt 
the BOUl. 

It is only the righteous, or those who aim to do rightj 

00 



the office of ooirscnuroB. on 

that enjoy the rich luxury of a good conscience. And 
there is nothing that bo rewards the pure bo punishes 
tlu' vile bo exalts the humblej bo debases the proud, — 
that is such a perpetual " judgment-day, ,J such an ever- 
sounding trumpet of God, — as this exclusively human 
gift and power, this witness of all our deeds, this divine 
tribunal in our hearts, this stern, perfect rewarder of all 
we do. 

Man is (exalted by obligation. Duty should not en- 
slave, hut make free. It is when through love we are 
bound by the solemn claims of holiness and virtue, that 
we are truly the heirs of liberty and enjoy the highest, 
widest freedom of the children of God. 

It is not power, or glory of intellect, that reveals the 
absolute grandeur and prophetic dignity of man. It is 
not when binding the forces of nature, or making her 
elements serve and enrich him — not then : but when, 
conscious of obligation, conscious of eternal equity, of 
an eternal Lawgiver, man says, in view of the noble or 
the vile in action, "1 ought," or " I ought not," — then 
is revealed the dignity of manhood, then we have one of 
the surest pledges that to us belong the eternal years. 

Our physical glory is like the grass, our intellectual, 
like the flower ; but right and truth are everlasting : jus- 
tice, love, fidelity, old as being, are yet as fresh and fair 
to-day as ever. We are not like God because of wisdom, 
strength, or riches ; but we are like him, and we are his, 
when just and righteous, when we choose the holy and 
love th6 good. When we " exercise ourselves," as did 
Paul, "to have a pure conscience void of offense," we 
place ourselves in harmony with all beneficent laws and 



G8 LTVlirQ QtrXBTTONR 

powers, place ourselves in the current of the river of 

God, — the lifting up of whose floods is everlasting peat 
and the chime of whose waves is eternal bliss 

Injustice is not violation of arbitrary law. but of the 

natural order of the universe. Fidelity to our sense of 
right is justice to our.-elves ; and such are the wise and 

perfect arrangements of Heaven, that when in the truest 
sense we are just to our own being, we are just toward 
all. Hence there can be no such thing as successful 
wrong, prosperous iniquity. The gain of wroug is ulti- 
mate loss, its riches poverty, its pleasures turn to pain, 
its seeming victories are defeats. The man who de- 
ceives another defrauds himself. The tyrant who hinds 
the arm of a freeman, or makes of his brother a slave. 
puts a chain upon his own neck. "Whosoever neglects 
a duty avoids a gain" and robs himself. If we reject the 
right we cheat ourselves. The man who boasts of sharp 
practice is liable to wound himself, at least, for he holds 
the sword by the blade instead of the hilt. 

I know that t€ Outward judgment sometimes fails, yet 
inward justice never. Let a man love and do the 
Wrong, its swift feet are Upon him, following with silent, 
muffled tread, and her iron hands are around his neck. 
He cannot escape from this more than from himself." 
He is forever shadowed by a sleepless detective. 

A- Daniel Webster once said : " A sense of duty pur- 
sues us ever. If we take the wings of the morning and 
dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, duty performed 
or duty violated is still with us, for our happiness or 
our misery. If we say the darkness shall cover us, in 
the darkness, as in the light, our obligations are yet with 



THE UFFICI-: OP ' "A - 7//.Y 00 

annot eeoape from their power, nor fly from 
their presenoe. They are with oa in this life, will be 
with us at its close; and in that Bceneof inconceivable 

■innity which li« farther onward we shall still 

find ourselves surrounded by the consciousness of duty, 

to pain us whenever it has been violated, and to Ton- 
us whenever, by the grace of God, it has been | 
formed." 
This eloquent language is forever true. All men 

have a deep, abiding sense of obligation — of oughtness. 
In other words, we are created with a gift or power by 
which we perceive moral qualities in human action, and 
by which we make moral distinctions. 

Now as auxiliary to this power, making it operative, 
making it practical, we have the conscience. This is a 
kingly virtue or attribute, not seated on the tribunal of 
the judiciary, but on the throne of executive authority. 

It is certainly important for us to know ourselves ; 
and judging from the countless theories and systems of 
philosophy, we may well conclude that it is extremely 
difficult to understand the action and attributes of the 
mind. For the same reason, we should also suppose that 
there must be special obstacles in the way of our appre- 
hending the character and the office of conscience. 
How many volumes and essays have been written to tell 
men what it is, and What it does, all different and all 
speaking with authority! 

We shall attempt neither review' nor criticism, but 
present, as clearly as we can, the result of our limited 
thought and reading upon this important and, as we 
have alreadv said, this exclusively human attribute. 



70 LlVLxa QUESTIONS, 

We make no claim of originality either of discovery or 
statement; for every line of approach and every avenue 

of the mind that conduct- to this central power was 
long ago beaten hard by the tread of earn ikera — 

by philosopher, moralist, casuist, jurist, ecclesiastic : 

and no word can be used that lias not the flavor of BJ 
no position can he taken that lias not long since been 
occupied or abandoned. 

While avc may he aided by the theories and systems 
of the philosopher ami the moralist, yet the ultimate 
authority is the mind itself. As with conjectures re- 
garding the physical constitution of man, so of those 
pertaining to his moral nature — self-knowledge is the 
final tribunal. As Ouvier demonstrated the principles 
of comparative anatomy, as Harvey discovered the cir- 
culation of the blood, so must we learn of the character 
and action of the conscience and of every natural en- 
dowment, — not by elaborating theories, but by fairly 
examining and questioning our own marvelous being. 

When we look at the voluntary conduct of others or 
at our own, there is a perception of moral qualities — a 
perception and recognition of justice or injustice, of 
right or wrong, of good or evil; and. at the same time, a 
feeling of approval or disapprobation. We have a sense, 
analogous to vision or taste, by which we perceive moral 

character in man. 

We never thus regard the brute animal; but no mat- 
ter how debased the man, he always thus judges and is 
thus judged. In all rational minds these ideas, or per- 
ceptions, of right and wrong, of merit and demerit, of 
justice and injustice, exist, hearing marks declaring them 



Tin-: OFFICE OF OOKBi UBNCS, 71 

t<» he i ryand universal. The; belong to man as 

an essentia] feature <»f the divine [mage in winch he was 

ited. These ideas arise in the mind as the direct 

result ol <>ur intelligence, — nol bo much the result of our 
reasoning, as that we are made reasonable, responsible 
beinj 

I do not mean that this moral sense, taste 01 vision, is 
the e; it is rather one of the conditions of that 

facility, as we .-hall see. Light is not vision, but is an 
l t in 1 provision for it- exercise, 

5Tou know that one of the ever-present questions with 
us, even in our feverish haste, — a question, at least, 
with all thoughtful people, as we look at the activities 
about us,— is, " Is this right?" or " Is it wrong?" And 
we are continually deciding these cases, crowning the 
one with our praise, branding the other with our blame. 
Now our judgment may be correct or false; our percep- 
tion may be clear or cloudy, fair or sophistical. We 
may be deliberate or hasty, zealous or careless, earnest 
or sluggish, in these decisions, as we are educated or ig- 
norant; according to our habits and our make-up, as we 
are gross or spiritual; perverse, depraved, or pure and 
loving. The idea of justice holds a place in all minds, 
though its applications may be false and its principles 
perverted. 

Ideal right and wrong are universal. Sir James 
Mackintosh says: "There is no tribe so rude as to be 
without a perception of their difference. There is no 
subject on which all tribes and ages of men coincide in 
so many points as in rules of conduct and qualities of 
character that deserve esteem." Now whence conic 



72 LIVING QUESTIONS. 

these 1 perceptions? Bow is it, why is it, that we look 

thus upon action, character and motive as good or bad, 

as right or wrong? Why is it wrong to steal? Why is 

it wrong U) lie; to rob j to blaspheme ; to slander; to 
Dllirder? How do We come tO have these ideas, ti: 

feelings of repugnance against evil? Many answers 
have been given to these questions. The following seems 

to me to be the true reply. 

Notions of right, of justice; perceptions of moral qual- 
ity; the looking at motives and deeds as praiseworthy or 
blamable, — all these moral conceptions are simple sugges- 
tions of our intelligence; we have them because we are 
made to have them, because God made man in his own 
image. They are primitive, intuitive, necessary, uni- 
versal; the result of our nature, not — as we have said — 
of reasoning, but of reason. Men do not differ in being 
conscious of right, of duty, for this is intuitive; but men 
differ in the application of principles to conduct, for 
here Ave must be guided by our judgment, and this may 
be true or false, (dear or confused. All feel that it is 
right to do right, but we often differ as to what right is 
in particular cases. All have a sense of obligation — of 
oughtness; but just what we ought to do must be an- 
swered according to the measure of our light and ability. 

Love, self-denial, honesty, charity, piety, heroism, 
fidelity, etc., are admired and commended by all. But 
great confusion has prevailed, and has tangled both 
thought and speech, because obvious distinctions have 
been neglected, and because men have been bound by 

some theory instead of being free to receive whatever 

truth might be taught by observation or experiment. 



77//-; OFFICE OF 00N8CIENCB 78 

Some writer.-, to ascertain what is natural to man, 

have proposed to refer questions involving moral per- 
oeption, or a u moral Bel » ." to Borne wild boy bronghl 
up by a friendly woU or bear, or to the degraded savaj 
Palrv, in his " Moral Philosophy/' regards such unfor- 
tunate persons ae competent judges as revealing to us 
what is in man. And Bavagee are often spoken of as 

being in "a state of nature." Hut, plainly, no human 
condition is more unnatural or artificial than that in 
which we find barbarous tribes, tor in this our noblest 

powers are suppressed or distorted, often beyond recogni- 
tion. The brutal, ignorant, degenerate, regressive >a\ 

is, as Whately says, " decidedly more artificial, more anti- 
natural, than the civilized. " One who had seen the 

stately palm-tree or the orange growing beneath their 
native skies, would not regard the stunted shrubs grow- 
ing in thumb-pots here at the North as fair samples of 
them, or as natural palm or orange trees. So, to find 
the true nature of man, we need to observe him at his 
best, when every gift is developed by normal use and 
every power fully exercised. We should treat him in 
this respect as we do plants and animals. Regardless 
of the special and the specious pleadings of our philoso- 
phers, we are sure that the natural man is man in the 
divine image, — man as near as possible to what God in- 
tended him to be. 

There are numberless applications of reverence, fear, 
love, obligation, worship ; but the recognition of these 
as virtues, duties, is universal. All men feel it is right 
to love our neighbor, the question being, "Who is my 
neighbor?" All recognize the duty of worship: yet our 



74 1JYL\<; QlTfiSTIO#& 

devotions differ as widely as opportunity and intelli- 
gence. Men do not nerd to be taughl that right and 
wrong exist, neither thai we ought to do good and 

hew evd. 

Our perception of moral qualities, then, has its origin 

10 our nature, our constitution. At an early period in 
our growth, unless there is abnormal suppression, these 

moral distinctions are revealed, being natural and also 
anticipated, provided for by the Almighty in our provi- 
dential environment. 

There are simple or necessary ideas incapable of being 
reduced to a simpler form, as there are chemical sim- 
ples, elementary substances. We know water is a com- 
pound, iron is a simple : salt is a compound, sulphur a 
simple. If one asks what water is, you can easily de- 
tine, and by analysis prove your answer to he correct. 
But iron with its well-known properties is simply iron, 
and gold 18 gold. So there are ideas that we may call 
first truths of the understanding, simple, universal : 
axioms, intuitions, that are necessary to mental action, to 
intellectual existence — that are because we have minds. 

Take for instance the consciousness of our own iden- 
tity ; the idea of time, of space, and mathematical 
axioms. 'These you cannot prove, or make plainer by 
any reasoning. Now to these necessary or simple ideas 
belong conceptions of the beautiful, the harmonious, the 
grand, the sublime, and also of right and wrong, of the 
true, the juM -of ought and ought not. 

How can you prove your own existence? the fact of 
time and space? Why is the rose red, the lily white? 
Why is music pleasing, a discord painful? Why is the 



THE office of OONSCIENCB, 76 

whole more than a part? Why is Niagara sublime? 
the ocean grand? the rainbow beautiful? Why is it 

Wrong to steal? to lie, blaspheme? to be t ivaeliep >u> ? to 

be mean. gro68j cruel, ungrateful, perfidious? Why do 
we despise a coward, a traitor, a miser? Why do we 

admire heroism? self -sacrifice ? Why do we love truth, 
mercy, justice? Why do We look with deep emotion 
upon Mont Blanc? Why do we detest Arnold and 
admire Regains? We answer one of these questions as 

We answer all : because of the nature, the perceptions 
that God hath given OS. Because of these moral intui- 
tions, in connection with the understanding and the 
judgment, we approve or we condemn, we are urged to 
choose or to reject. 

Now it seems to me that conscience is not simply this 
moral faculty, this moral taste, by which we perceive a 
difference in voluntary actions and motives. But this 
gift by which we can thus distinguish between right and 
wrong is a condition, as we have said, for the exercise 
of conscience. Conscience is always an authority, always 
something to be obeyed. 

If you examine the action of your mind in view of 
some course of conduct where there is enticement to evil, 
where a moral element or principle is prominent, where 
you must feel a sense of obligation, you will find, unless 
desperately depraved, that your experience will be thus: 

First, the act will appear to you as right or w T rong ; as 
just and fair, or as mean and dishonest. The mind per- 
ceives the moral quality of the transaction ; the judg- 
ment decides upon its character. 

Second, there will come the impression of obligation, 



70 IAVIXG QUESTIONS. 

urging you to chooee the right and reject the wrong; 
not only a plain conviction that you ought, or ought 
not. but a command to do as you ought, because it is 

your duty. This is what I call Conscience. 

Third, there will come, connected with your action, a 
Consciousness of merit or demerit — a strong, sweet >ense 
of approval or a feeling of sharp condemnation. 

It is true, the heart may be so hardened; the mind 

irarpedj we may become so crooked and purblind by 
selfishness, that this may appear of trifling importance; 
hut the above is the general experience of those not 
dead or dying in sin. 

This, then, is our conclusion : Conscience does not so 
much tell us what is right, true, and just, but commands 
US to do it : its office is, not to judge, but to prompt. 
That which our judgment, our understanding, our en- 
tire being in the divine image, decides, or sees to be the 
correct thing to do, that conscience commands, urges us 
t<> do. It is ever saying. u Vou ought, because it is 
right ;" or, "You ought not. because it is wrong:'' not 
bo much revealing our duty as constraining us to obey 
that which we perceive to be right. It is executive 
rather than judicial. It does not hold the balances, but 
wields the sword. Conscience demands light ; it de- 
mands of reason, of each power, a revelation of that 
which is just, good, and true; and then witli kindly 
authority says, u Do justly, act righteously. " 

How then shall we regard the authority of conscience? 
We cannot look upon it as an infallible guide to absolute 
right and truth : indeed, if it were perfect it would 
Stand alone among our endowments, for OUT moral and 



THE OFFIOB OF OOFBOIBNl 77 

intellectual powers, unlike the instincts of the animal 

Id, arc oapable of improvement, ore inoompl< 

approaohing perfection only by trial and effort — hence 
there i the possibility of mistakes and painful 

errors. The oiosl conscientious have often fiercely op- 
posed truth, righteousneg -, said mercy as God sees them. 
It does not follow that an act is essentially right be- 
oauG i ommands. I Mir decision is a matter of 

judgment, and this may be true or false, for it is largely 
dependent on education, environment, on our moral 
ripeness or immaturity. Conscientious persons are not 
always right, yet w\\ others are most certainly wrong. 
Though not right, still they may he righteous. Saul 
the persecutor was better than many a pretentious dis- 
ciple. Better the faults of the sincere than the virtues 
of the hypocrite. Sweeter may be the sacrifices of the 
benighted idolater than the spotless offerings of the 
Pharisee. True worship may rise from false altars, and 
prayers that pierce the heavens may come from heathen 
hearts; while from Zion itself there may ascend the 
mockery of devotion — vain, heartless repetitions may 
be uttered by the sacred priest and consecrated Levite. 

What shall we do ? Shall we follow a guide that often 
has erred, and may still err? Yes, yes; and still ever do- 
ing as did Paul: "Herein do I exercise myself, to have 
always a conscience void of offence toward God, and to- 
ward men." A great German philosopher — Fichte — says: 
"The formal law of morals is this, Always act in con- 
formity with your convictions of duty; always obey your 
conscience. This rule includes two others: first, try to 
understand clearly what is your duty in every matter; 



78 uvnro QUESTIONS. 

then, when you are convinced what your duly is, do it, 
for the sole reason that you arc sure that it is your duty. 
. . . The conscience renders the ultimate decision, 
which is without appeal. To attempt to rise above one's 
conscience is to attempt to goonl of one's self." 

Bui says Paul Janet, from whose "Theory of Morals'-' 
I quote: "This principle seems contrary to common- 
sense, and even dangerous in its results. It justifies, 
apparently, all fanaticisms, all aberrations of the moral 
sense, all illusions of an overwrought imagination. . . . 

It seems to me easy enough to solve the difficulty. The 

judgment pronounced in each particular case is, in real- 
ity, composed of two judgments: first, such an action is 
your duty; second, perform this action because it is your 
duty. Now in the first of these judgments we may he mis- 
taken, for it may happen that a certain action which I be- 
lieve to he my duty is not my duty. Bui the conscience 
is not mistaken in the second; for if it is certain that any 
given action is my duty I ought to perform it. If , then, 
the name of conscience he applied only to the second of 
these two judgments, to the act by which I declare that 
a certain action being my duty I ought to perform it, it 
is clear that such a judgment is never erroneous. We 
may he deceived in regard to the character of an action, 
hut the will to do one's duty is necessarily infallible. 
The error, if error there he, lies in the judgment which 
decides that a certain action is duty. Now, Kant ad- 
mit- that we may deceive ourselves in this matter, and 

he advises us to enlighten our intelligence as to what is 

or is not our duty, thus making a distinction between 
the intelligence and the conscience. It is the first which 



Tin: OFFICE OF OONBGIBNi 79 

tells us. Such a thing ia your duty. It m the second 
which Bays to us, Do such a thing because H is your 
duty." Thiswemusi obey. For the final, the supreme 
rule must be, after seeking lighl and every help from 

Within and without, from God and man, we arc hound 

io what wo Bee and tee! wo ought to do; in other 
words, always obey conscience. 

And St. Paul teaches US that we obey God when we 

are true to our highest convictions of duty. We arc to 
seek divine instruction; and t lien we violate the law of 
1 if we do what seems to us to be wrong. Our obedi- 
ence or disobedience may not be the keeping or vio- 
lating of a perfect, absolute, eternal precept; yet the re- 
sult of our action, to ourselves, may be the same as if 
our sense of right and wrong were clear, perfect percep- 
tions of the absolute instead of the relative. He told 
the Corinthians there was no sin in eating meat that had 
been offered to an idol if they realized that there was 
but one God, and hence that an idol was nothing in the 
world. Yet to such as had not this knowledge there 
was not this liberty. Those who believed it to be wrong 
to eat such food were defiled by eating, as truly as if it 
were forbidden by the law of God. They yielded to ap- 
petite or to fashion instead of being true to their sense 
of duty. 

So again we find the ultimate rule to be, Obey the 
voice of conscience — that authority which says, Do that 
which is revealed to you as your duty, that which you 
believe yon ought to do. If I perceive an act as vile, 
false, mean, to me it is wrong, and its commission will 



80 LIVING QUESTIONS. 

bring guilt and remorse; for it is noi how it may seem to 
others, bui what it La to me. 
We are not only to do right things, but do them 

rightly: not only tell the truth, but be veracious. Better 
be true to the false than false to the true. Better he 

sincere even in the wrong than a hypocrite in the right. 
Better fidelity in that which is useless or erroneous than 
to advocate eternal justice with the mockery of pretense, 

with fair-faced, lying simulation. We say this, because 
personal integrity is the most precious of all interests — 
man himself being far more than constitutions or sys- 
tems. For the end is not simply honoring the law by 
our obedience, it is not the commission of this or that act ; 
since there is still a final reason beyond all this why we 
should obey the right, why God has revealed the pre- 
cepts of his government and the riches of his grace. 
" He is love," and love seeks the highest good of its ob- 
ject; hence personal fidelity, nobility of life, the fullness, 
ripeness, perfection of the image and child of the Al- 
mighty Father must be the ultimate, — not obedience to 
law, but the blessed fruit of obedience, a clear and noble 
life. You had better be a sincere heretic than falsely 
orthodox; for the worst possible heresy is, not the muti- 
lation of a doctrine, but the defilement of the divine 
image in man. If the supreme end were church or 
temple, doctrine or creed, their strength and purity, we 
could not say this; but how much more precious to the 
world and to (Jod is a free, true heart, is Christ-like 
fidelity, than assent to any creed, observance of any form, 
subscription to thirty-nine or to thirty-nine thousand 
articles] 



77//; OFFICE OF CONSCIENCE, 81 

How poor should we be without men of such conseien- 

tious convictions and stern integrity aa have led thou to 
turn from all the glory of the world and bear alone, amid 
its hootinga and peltingBj the cross of Ohrisi which Dr. 
Bacon says "was nol a doctrine, hut a gallows"! The 
world is rich in "systematic theology." What we need 
is truth embodied; and no amount of doctrine, though 
piled high aa Horeh and as true aa the Mount of Law, 

can compensate for a pure conscience ♦•veil though the 
intellect may be in error. 

There are important practical lessons connected with 
this subject. The need of correct instruction is evident. 
Help is demanded, [gnorance, prejudice, passion, so 
warp and befog the mind that it is often difficult for the 
conscience to command aright. Still we need not walk 
in darkness. We have the light of God's Word. We 
may have a light within. Many of the noblest, ripest 
of men have said, looking back over a long life, "When 
we have faithfully followed the light God kindles in the 
heart, we have never had cause to regret the course 
pursued or the end we have chosen." 

All our powers are capable of the greatest improve- 
ment. Reason, judgment, taste, every sense and faculty 
may be educated until there is a divine beauty and per- 
fection in both action and character. 

We may see from all this what a sin of arrogance and 
presumption is the tyranny claiming authority over an- 
other's conscience, or the bigotry that condemns sincere 
action. At the supremest moment of his life, Luther 
declared, "I cannot and will not recant, because it is 
neither safe nor prudent to do aught against conscience, " 



83 LTVmO QUESTIONS. 

This is Protestantism. But, dressed in a little brief au- 
thority, we too have claimed the righl to try and to con- 
demn "another's servant," when hlfl master required 

him to be, like Luther, true to his conscience. We ap- 
plaud Luther's Courage and Ins sentiments, and yet often 
show the despotic spirit of Home. We garnish the tombs 
of the fathers who bravely died, or heroically made the 
wilderness their home tor conscience 5 sake, and still we 
exhibit towards the same fidelity a despotism limited 
only by the extent of our power. If it be said that 
the persecutor as well as the persecuted is or may be 
conscientious ; yet on the part of the former, the law of 
charity, the command that forbids us to judge, the sacred 
rights of the individual, are all plainly violated ; while 
the reputed heretic, like AVickliffe or Luther, is simply 
exercising the privilege and discharging the duty that 
under the Gospel belongs to the humblest follower of 
the Lord Jesus Christ. 

What, punish a man because he is so true to God 
that he cannot do aught against his conscience ! It 
seems as if the Church in its zeal often sets a trap to 
destroy integrity ; for no matter how sincere, we are still 
required to indorse the philosophy of uninspired men 
before receiving commendation to preach the Gospel. 
And if we outgrow this philosophy we are in danger of 
ecclesiastical death, unless by double-dealing and mental 
reservation we become utterly repugnant to our only 
Master, who would not, who will not, "break a bruised 
reed," but who branded hypocrisy with the hottest fire 
thai ever flamed from divine wrath. 

What ;i temptation in this case is put in the way of 



THE OFFICE OF 00N8CIBNCB, 88 

virtue, and what a bribe i> offered to pharisaism ! For 
the empty head ami the vile heart may shout " ( 'redo l n 
— and shout the lustier tor believing the less. Shall we 
receive aa a brother the one bo dull as not to apprehend 
the difficulties ol faith, or bo designing as always to side 
with the majority or wear any mask that is popular; 

while we brand as a heretic and bar from our fellowship 

the man who is sincere, whose heart is transparent, vet 

confesses his doubts and difficulties in attempting to 
sp the mysteries of theology? If we do this, we are 

Ealse to Christianity, in which the man is more than the 
tem, H we do this, we place the sincere thinker un- 
der the ban of the Church, while offering a bounty to 
thoughtless stupidity or designing hypocrisy. 

Who can doubt that many are tempted to violate 
or neglect conscience, that they may receive the honors 
and the gold of ecclesiastical indorsement? But of how 
much greater value is the assurance that a man is true — 
true to himself ; true to truth as it is revealed to him ; 
true to God as he has made known his wisdom, power 
and mercy? Such a man we should love and help — or 
rather we should be ready to receive his blessing and 
seek his fellowship. Who can doubt that such a man 
would have been looked upon with great tenderness by 
the Saviour, regardless of race or the letter of his creed ? 

We ought to say at least a word regarding the power 
of conscience, its rewards and retributions. The most 
divine of all our faculties, the most exalted and kingly; 
badge of man's greatness and pledge of immortality — this 
power may be the source of the purest bliss or of the 
deepest misery. How like the smile of Heaven is an ap- 



M LIVING QUESTIONS. 

proving conscience ! Then how Bweet is life, how bright 
is hope ! The crowning blessing and the highest favor 
arc bestowed upon "the purr in heart." 

But a guilty conscience will lash us naked through 
the world. When it condemns we behold in every sight 
an accusing witness, in every sound a voice of judgment 

Afl the self-condemned Alonso cried, 

"(). it is monstrous ! monstrous! 
Afethougnl the billows spoke, and told me of it ; 

The winds did sing it to me ; and the thunder, 

Thai deep ami dreadful organ-pipe, pronounced 
The name of Prosper." 

And so it ever is. " Be sure your siu will find you 
out." No space can separate, no darkness hide, no 
disguise can Bcreen you from your evil deeds and this 
dread avenger. Retribution is not theory, but reality. 
Long ago it was said, "The greatest penalty of sin is 
to have sinned." There is no peace like the approba- 
tion of God ; no fire like the burning brimstone of 
remorse. 

\\V may evade political and social laws ; we may dodge 
the sharpest detective ; we may shove by justice with a 
hand of .-kill or power: but crime or its guilt will make 
US miserable, for the worm shall gnaw and the lire burn. 
oh, remember this: there is no poverty, no suffering 

in this world like the insolvency which comes from lost 
innocence and the haunting memory of evil deeds; 
there is no joy, nor bliss, nor fullness like that which 
COmes from "having a good conscience." 



The EtRSUBREOnoir. 

" But some one will lay, How are the dead raised? and with 
what manner of body do they come?" — 1 Cor. w. 35. 

Thesk questions present almost a solitary instance in 
the New Testament of an attempt at a philosophical 

statement, or of an effort to meet by fact and logic the 
fears of the doubtful and the cavils of the skeptical. 

It is true the Apostles reasoned of " righteousness, 
temperance, and judgment to come;" they reasoned with 
recreant Jews concerning the time of the Messiah's 
advent, and the manner of his life: but they appealed 
to the law and the prophets in corroboration of their 
testimony. They either appealed to that which men 
knew to be true by the witness of their own conscious- 
ness, or to a plain " Thus saith the Lord," as recorded 
in their Sacred Scriptures. 

But the questions of our text belong rather to the 
philosophical, the theoretical, than to the vital, the 
essential. We know that Christianity is primarily a 
life, while it represents the absolute, the final, in reli- 
gion and morals. It is impossible to supersede it by 
anything better, truer, nobler; for we cannot conceive 
of any higher demands upon our action, our faith, and 
our hope. The last words of the last Apostle present 

the sublimest of all inspired truths — present the ultimate 

85 



LIVING QUESTIONS. 
revelation of both God and man. of divine character 

and of human obligation. Can thought or langu; 

furnish a more complete and everlasting monograph of 
tin' Supreme Being than the words of St. John, "God 
ia Love"? 
In a higher state there mav be higher revelations; but 

wi- need not look for another to teach us what God is, 
and what our obligations are, while we dwell amid the 
limitations of time. 

1 am not saving there can be no progress in theology. 
There has been progress in revelation, marking plainly 
each advancing era of God's grace and mercy; and 
there should be progress in our religious attainments. 
There should be, with increasing and golden oppor- 
tunities, a continual growth in knowledge — a better, 
riper understanding of the Word and the providence 
of God. 

The man who attempts to stereotype his theological 
views attempts the foolish, the impossible, unless he 
ceases to think, to grow, to be true to himself and to 
the rich heritage that God has given him. Bigotry, 
fear, stupidity, cry out against religious }3rogress and 
theological advancement. But let us rather, casting 
these gross fossils " to the moles and the bats, " climb 
the hills and scale the mountains, that we may Bee what 
God has given us. For he says to us, while we stand on 
the borders of immeasurable truth, as he said to the 
patriarch: "The whole land is before thee; it is thine: 
go in and possess it." 

We are living in the midst of amazing changes — of 
revolutions, even, — in science, in social and political 



THE UESURREOTIi ffl 

aomy; and we should expect, in the absence of an 
infallible Church, an infallible creed, changes also in 
religious thought and doctrine. Why nol P u Finite 
minds/' says President Finney, u unless they are asleep 

stultified by perjudice, must advance in knowledj 
The discovery of new truth will modify old news and 
opinions, and there is perhaps no end to this proa 

with finite minds in any world." 

During the last half-century we have Been, by investi- 
gation and experiment, the whole world of scientific 

thought almost completely revolutionized; while at 
the same time, by invention and discovery, the entire 

face of society has been so changed that we, to-day, look 
out upon a new world. And who that thinks can doubt 
that a great revolution is going on also in the religious 
world? The scepter so long held by our theologic kings 
is broken. Hierarchs who from forgotten graves have 
ruled the Church for centuries are now criticised, or 
their authority denied. The deliverances of Councils 
and Assemblies are now questioned, and instead of a 
slavish assent to the "Fathers" of the Church, there is 
a free and reverent looking up to the Great Father of 
all; and now, as seldom before, the questions are: What 
does God demand ? What does Christ teach ? While 
both fresh and musty creeds, with all priestly rule, are 
boldly interrogated or flatly rejected. And no doubt it 
is as true to-day as ever, that by the stern work of the 
iconoclast men are brought nearer to the "one Father," 
to the "one Master," — the one perfect Guide and Teach- 
er, — whose words are life, and w T hose loving presence 
redemption. 



LIVING QUESTIONS, 

Now pre have in our text an illustrative instance of 

the rapid and radical change that is possible in Biblical 
interpretation and belief. 4t How are the dead raised? 
and with what bodies !'" These questions are of great 
interest, hut not absolutely essential to Christian hope. 
For the vital truth is that "our Saviour JeSUS Christ 
hath abolished death, and brought life and immortality 

to light through the Gospel." 

But there were good reasons why St. Paul deviated in 
this instance from his usual course, and gave his mas- 
terly argument on the resurrection of the dead. For 

here he was not called to meet metaphysical objections, 
nor any question of casuistry or ceremony; neither 
Qreek wisdom nor Jewish tradition was here in the 
way of Christian hope and faith: but it was the testi- 
mony of the senses, the universal perception and ex- 
perience of the living that death ends all, that he was 
called to meet and answer. 

In the article of death our external senses are at fault, 
or illusory. Their ex parte testimony leads to skepti- 
cism and despair; we can trust them only in regard to 
the material. We see a dear one sicken, waste, and die. 
We say " Farewell/' and in our loneliness exclaim, 
u Man giyeth up the spirit, and where is he P 3 It seems 
a moral, a personal annihilation. We see destruction 
complete, death victorious. He throws out his ban- 
ner of triumph on the ghastly, appalling face. If in 
this experience we have only the sensuous to guide, we 
too must conclude with the ill-starred, fallen king, 
"The dead know not anything." "Asa beast dieth, 
BO dieth man: they have all one breath; so that man 



the nBBURRBCTION, 81) 

hath no pre-eminence above a beast: tor all is vanity. 

All go unto one place; all arc Of the dust, and all turn 

to dust again/ 1 

Appearances are againsl all hope. Those we love so 
well an- beyond oar right and reach: the person thai 

was so dcai- and precions vanished like the flame oi an 

extinguished taper. The tomb is Silent; its tenants are 

VOiceleSS. To overcome these ohstaeles and .stimulate 
Christian hope, Paul conies, in this grand chapter on the 
resurrection, with the historic fad of Christ crucitied 
and risen from the dead. He comes with analogy and 
Logic, (dear and strong; with common experience and 

serration; and blending all with the welding heat of 
an inspired, impassioned heart, his argument dilates in 
power, glowing and Hashing with eternal light and hope, 
as he presents the weak and fallen animal man rising 
into the spiritual — into glory, power, incorruption, and 
immortality, — chanting a glad song of thanksgiving and 
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Thus we trace the reason and the course of Paul's 
argument. With no light but that of our external 
senses, we are powerless and despairing in the presence 
of death. No quest of the anatomist can find the soul, 
or find anything but chemical elements, whether this 
body is living, or shattered and dismantled by disease 
and death. Xo astronomer can find a home of im- 
mortals among the stars. No telescope reveals the 
jasper walls of the Golden City in the planetary or 
sidereal spaces of the firmament. Hence- there is ever 
before us the argument of materialism or of despair — 



dO livim; QUESTIONS. 

that the dead have vanished from being with the ex- 
piring breath; thai "they know qoI anything/' 
Our modern teachers, Feeling this difficulty, and 
tying to overcome the infidelity of sense, have failed 
mosl Bignally, Borne of them at least, by the use of an 

unfortunate expression, and have made the hope of the 
Go8pel dim and unreal. We have been told, for in- 
stance, by those who would aid us, of an " immaterial 
soul," of "immaterial existence." I > 1 1 1 this makes the 
future life so vague and distant that Gospel realities be- 
come like shadows, and Christian hope a dream. With 
this idea of immateriality "the Father's house " be- 
comes like the Elysium of Athenian saints, instead of 
the warm and blessed home of real, conscious, personal 
existence. 

But the Apostle comes to our help, not by negations 
that confound the skeptic and yet leave the devout and 
trusting in the midst of uncertainty, for he tells us not 
of the "immaterial n bui of the spiritual, of the "spirit- 
ual body." "There are," he Bays, "'bodies which be- 
long to heaven and bodies which belong to earth. So, 
in the resurrection of the dead: it is sown a natural 
body, it is raised a spiritual body; for as there are 
natural bodies, 80 there arc spiritual bodies." And 
then he reminds us that we must not trust these ap- 
pearances; that spiritual things are only spiritually 
discerned. Hence we need not fear because V\e cannot 

the dear ones whose earthly house or tent is de- 
stroyed. Our power of perception is no proof of a limit 
to existence. Inability prores little or nothing. The 
blind have no true conception of the world of lighi and 



77/// BB81 RRB( TION< 91 

varied beaut] thai surrounds them. The deaf dwell in 

a world of absolute dlenoe: yel the unwritten harmonies 
of nature are a perpetual Boorce of delighl to those who 
have the gifl of bearin 

So, for us to discern the departed or discern their 
departure, we need an added the e leer- 

shi]). perhaps — though what another would be, we 

cannot conceive. Bui do nol conclude, because you 
cannot behold the resurrection-body with these organs 
tion that are adjusted only to material things, 
that therefore 'death is, as it appears, a cessation of 
being; for there are bodies so made and so related to 
heaven that we cannol touch or Bee them. Bince they are 
spiritual. As God gives a body to the grain of wheat or 
barley that you plant. 80 he g lead a body — 

not the body that you see. not the body that you bury, 
not the body of flesh and blood, but a body that pleaseth 
him; spiritual, glorious, immortal; a body as perfectly 
related to that higher world as these fleshly bodies are 
to this earthly state. 

The hope of a future, enduring, higher life has been 
one of the universal, conserving influences of human 
history. Yet, if we respect the testimony of many able 
observers, we are forced to conclude that this hope 
seems; at least, to diminish with our progress; does not, 
as a power over the heart, keep pace with the increase of 
light and of scientific knowle< Ige. It is not difficult. I 
think, to find an explanation. Aside from revelation, 
this hope is intuitional rather than intellectual: in most 
minds it arises from instinctive feelings, instead of 
coming from any process of reasoning. 



02 UVINQ QUESTIONS, 

Moreover, as all blessings may be perverted, so this 
increasing lighi may be a hinderance instead of a help 

to our moral and spiritual completion. If, with the in- 
crease of knowledge, we arc "puffed up" rather than 

edified, by recognizing divine wisdom; if we become so 

blind as to suppose that all practical realities are tangi- 
ble, or within the reach of the amazing powers with 
which modern inventive genius has gifted us; if we 
turn from the still, small voice of communion with (iod, 
concluding there is nothing beyond the grasp of in- 
tellect, nothing that answers to faith, nothing correlated 
to our hope, but that all that is knowable or valuable to 
us is included in material nature and the revelations of 
science, — then you may be sure the hope of immortality 
will become vague and fade away like a dream. 

Yet this is simply the result of a common law of our 
moral being. How soon we lose what we do not use! 
"Take therefore the talent from him" is the judgment 
on all who refuse to improve the gifts bestow r ed; and, 
everywhere, u to him that hath is given, while from 
him who hath not is taken away even that which he 
hath/ 1 We know that vice breeds vice, while virtue in- 
creases virtue. If you look only at the earthy, you will 
soon become blind to the heavenly. If the heart is 
fixed on temporal good and sensuous treasures, you soon 
cease to realize spiritual realities, and the hope of im- 
mortality fades away. Alas, to how many the seen and 
temporal appear real and enduring, while the invisible 
and eternal are like shadows and fables! Like the 
miser, who has no faith in benevolence; the coward, 
who no longer believes in heroism: the foul sensualist. 



THE RESURRECTION, 

wli |] purity, — bo tin 1 person who has developed 

only the animal soofbal the spiritual, and is faithless in 

ard to immortality. 

Another cause of this growing indifference may be 
found m the popular descriptions of heaven, and the char- 
acter thai has been given to the future life. We make 
heaven attractive to the poor by the promise of infinite 
abundance; to the weary, because there is rest; to the 
afflicted, because all tears are to be wiped away; to the 
aged, who long for repose, — and, we mighl add. to the 
lazy, for, no toil being demanded, their fondest hope 
will be changed to fruition. 

But the aspiring, the strong and energetic, whose 

pulse-heat is not like the slow roll of the muffled drum, 

hut a reveille calling to action; the nobly enterprising, 

who gladly welcome toil and danger in conquering the 
mountain, the desert, and the sea, that they may make 
the earth their own, — that, according to promise, they 

may replenish, Bubdue, and have dominion; — what bow 
of hope bends for these over the portals of the future? 
The young and ardent, whose hearts are tilled with de- 
sires that embrace all the truths and treasures of God, — 
where is their heaven? What shall cheer their spirits 
if they fall in their noble quest? No matter how pure 
and reverent, can they look with fond hope to an " im- 
material existence/" or to the joys of an everlasting con- 
venticle or 'Move-feast "? And who can wonder that, to 
all who seek to calm the beating of their fervid hearts 
by noble action in the pursuit of truth and of goodness, 
the heaven of many of our hymns and sermons tends to 
a feeling of indifference instead of a strong desire? 



94 LIVING QUESTIONS. 

Y«t we may rest assured there isa heaven Eor t be young 
and active, the favored and happy, who may be just as 
the poorest, the feeblest, and the saddest 
And then, how arbitrary have been our conceptions of 

the future: death fixing all destiny by ending all moral 
action, while in the world to come we have "a palace 
and a prison on either hand." with nothing for the saints 
and the sinners bui to sing and to suffer endlessly; the one 
class to praise Sod forever* and the other to blaspheme ! 
Fruition and despair; a limitless range of existence, 
hut not of life ! Do you wonder that faith in immortal- 
ity is waning? While we may deplore this fact, we are 
sure Christianity is not responsible for this sad result. 
For the heaven of the Gospel is symbolized by the one 
word that leads all to forget theology and think of love: 
by the one thing that is dear alike to the aged and the 
youthful, the weak and the strong, rich and poor, 
Bntist and artisan, saint and skeptic; by the one word 
that, without regard to time, or tribe, or race, unites all 
hearts beneath all skies in a common affection, and, by 
the law of association, brings it in warm reality near and 
precious alike to all. There is but one word or symbol 
that can perform this office, and that word our Saviour 
used when he spoke of heaven as "the Father's House" — 

the HOWH .' EOW dear, how blessi d | 

Bee the power of this one word! — the stern, exacting 
doctor leaving the ecclesiastic behind him at the outer 
door, a- he enters the dear domestic circle -the home. 
How different now from his at tit ude in the Church! lie 

proves tin possibility of an instantaneous conversion. The 

rigid, punctilious hierarch at once become- the affection- 



9URBB0IJ0H 90 

parent, as wife and children crowd toembraoe and 

welcome, lie has no inclination to excommunicate and 

curse. Father!] 1 is supreme, and the place i> red- 
olent <>!' love and peace. Ohj if OUT doctors and 

ed makers had been in this truly divine spirit, — if, as 
did the Master, they had "placed a little child in the 
midst," — our theology would have been more truthful, 
and the world toeonie Ear more real and attractive. 

I know that language is weak to express the spiritual, 

the Bupersensual; yet it ifi here — in the tender clinging 
and the strong defense, in the love and confidence so 
pure and perfect, in the childlike and the paternal in 

the home — that we find the hope of the world and the 

similitude of heaven. 

Still, our design is. not to speak of immortality, but 
rather to aid our faith by presenting the Christian doc- 
trine of the resurrection. 

In the absence of inspiration, how impossible to 
account for the words and the silence of Scripture in 
regard to the future life! Though but little is said, 
however, there is enough for hope, faith, and love — 
nothing for curiosity or vanity. 

Yet in the Scripture we have the divine estimate of 
death, while life and immortality are brought to light. 
Death is abolished. It is not what it seems, for "to 
(iod, all live/' or all are alive. That which appears a 
deep and dread hiatus is not the annihilation of our 
consciousness, to await a re-creation at some far-off time; 
it is the being " unclothed " with flesh and "clothed 
upon" by a spiritual body — translated from a material to 
a spiritual state. So the Gospel seems to teach. 



96 UYIXCr QUESTIONS. 

•• How arc the dead raised; and with what bodi( 
Two answers may be given to this question; that is, 
there are two prominent theories of the resurrection. 
One is the rising up at death of the real man. clothed 
in a spiritual body, — not unclothed, but " clothed upon, 
and mortality swallowed up in life." Jt is rising from 
the dead: not of the dead body, for that "is sown a 
natural body, raised a spiritual body." "We SOW not 
the body that shall be, but God giveth it a body." 

The other theory supposes, not so much a rising vj) y 
us a rising again, of the body, the dust, — a reorganiza- 
tion, at the last day, of our material forms, their frag- 
ments gathered and combined anew; while the soul 
comes from heaven or hell, — or perhaps from some in- 
termediate place, — and again enters the familiar body 
now made immortal. The person, complete, then pro- 
reeds to the judgment-bar of Christ, there to receive 
the sentence of endless miserv, or to receive the reward 
of eternal bliss. 

We should also remember that there is a large and re- 
sectable class of Christian believers who, agreeing with 
the common or " orthodox" view of the resurrection of 
the body, yet in other respects differ widely from the cur- 
rent doctrine. They deny the native immortality of the 
soul, claiming that we become heirs of life by working 
out our salvation, and that through grace we are made 
immortal by the Lord Jesus at the resurrection, if by 
holine8fi we are prepared to enter the "Father's house. " 
They hold that death ends all consciousness, — "The 
dead know not anything." The sleep is so profound 
that we are as if we had not been, and but for the 



THE RESURRECTION 97 

resurrection, death would be the eternal end — an eter- 
nal sleep. All hope rests OH the reorganizal inn, or re- 

ation of this fleshly body, This is promised through 
the graoe of God. The righteous will be raised im- 
mortal and taken to heaven; the wicked raised as they 
died, mortal, BUbjecl to the doom of the "second 

death," to be burned ap bodj and soul, " destroyed 

from the presence of the Lord." There is no immortal 
sin, no endless misery. Those who are not "meet for 
the inheritance of the saints " Buffer the perdition of nn- 
godly men. " Then Cometh the end: and when Christ 
shall have Bubdued all things unto himself, he shall de- 
liver up the kingdom to GWfl, even the Father, that (rod 
may be all in all/' 

But is this view of the resurrection correct ? Is it a 
tremendous act of habeas corpus proclaimed to earth and 
sea, so rich in human dust ? Is our future, immortal 
tabernacle to come from the graveyard ? Is this flesh 
and is this blood to enter the kingdom of God? Do 
the Scriptures teach the resurrection of the body ? We 
do not question the power, but is this the will, of God ? 

We think not; but here, as everywhere, we should be 
charitable, teachable, and easy to be entreated towards 
the truth. There must be a reason for this theory — a 
reason felt to be conclusive — or this doctrine of the 
rising again of the body could not have prevailed as it 
has, could not have been placed in the earliest creeds 
side by side with the most vital and essential articles of 
faith. Hence it is no doubt connected, in some way, 
with the paramount truth, the great Christian hope, of 
the resurrection, or the future life. 



98 LI Visa qUESTIOim 

What is this hope p What to us, aside from holi- 
11688, is the vital, practical ]>oint in our immortality f 
It is not, as we have said, the philosophy of the resurec- 
tion. It is not the method of OUT rising, nor the time 
when this event i.< due. It is not essential to us whether 
we arc raised to a spiritual life when we die, or a little 
later on in time. It is not essential whether we leave 
these hodies forever by being raised at death to enter a 
spiritual body, or, as many still believe, whether the 
corpse that is buried is to be raised from the grave and 
made immortal. For the vital point is, not the kind 
of bodies we are to have, or how they are made; but the 
essential Christian doctrine is our immortal, personal 
identity: that we arc raised ourselves, with memory and 
consciousness; with a clear and perfect knowledge of our 
individual being, — preserved alike from the shadowy 
negations of immateriality and the despair of absorption 
or annihilation. This is the hope — not the hope of 
those who go sounding on their dim and perilous way, 
expecting at the last to be merged into the central, im- 
personal soul of the universe,* but the hope of those who 
hear the Master saying: "Because I live, ye shall live 
also." "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, 
and they follow me. and I give unto them eternal life.* 1 

Now the doctrine of the resurrection of the body, 
gT088 as it is, was based on this essential truth, — one of 

the most precious of Gospel assurances, — the preserva- 
tion amid all changes, the perpetuity amid all dis- 
asters, of our personal identity. This is the precious 
truth of the resurrection. For, however we may be 
* As held for ;iL r c< by the millions of India. 



ran RR8URRBCTI0N. D0 

M'd. and with whatever bodies we niay be clothed, it 
.an be of DO value or interest to us if we do not rise in 
all the COmpletene8fl of our conscious personality — if we 

do not rise knowing that we are the same beinga that 

dwelt in these earthly tabernacles. 

The doctrine of the "resurrection of the body" was 
the testimony of the early Church in behalf of this sub- 
lime truth. It was dinging to this Christian hope against 
the unrealities of pagan philosophy and the Gnostic 
heresy. As is often the case, so here, a precious truth 
was defended by imperfect means; and the unseriptural 
expression, '•resurrection of the body/' or "resurrec- 
tion of the Hesh," has no doubt aided in preserving the 
iptural hope of our "enduring identity. " 
But is the resurrection of the body necessary to the 
preservation of our personality, our enduring conscious- 
ness ? If it is, then we must hope to see the graveyards 
plowed — subsoiled — again; not by the sexton, but by the 
archangel. We must hope that for our scattered dust 
the earth may be sifted and the pavement of the sea 
may be raked by the power of God. If to preserve our 
being there must be a physical resurrection, then must 
that marvelous description of the poet Young be real- 
ized : 

11 Now charnels rattle: scattered limbs and all 
The various bones, obsequious to the call, 
Self -moved, advance, — the neck perhaps to meet 
The distant head: the distant head, the feet. 
Dreadful to view ! See through the dusky sky 
Fragments of bodies in confusion fly, 
To distant regions journeying, there to claim 
Deserted members and complete the frame." 



100 LIVING QUESTIONS. 

But it is now evident, as it was not in the early ages 
of the Church, that our identity is independent of the 

gross material thai forms the house or tabernacle of 
the real person, tin- true image of God. As is well 
known, our bodies are continually changing, no two days 
the same; while every few years, through all our earthly 

life, we have a body entirely new, made up of materials 
that have been portions of other bodies, vegetable, ani- 
mal, and human; yet this "I, myself," remains the same 
in its consciousness, no matter how long we live. 

This fact renders a resurrection of the body as organ- 
ized material a physical impossibility, if not an absurd- 
ity; while it comes graciously to our aid by showing 
that such a resurrection is not necessary to the Gospel 
hope of our personal immortality not necessary to the 
one essential and precious truth of the resurrection, the 
preservation beyond death of our conscious identity. 
The particles of matter we wear are no more essential 
to our proper being than the clothes we wear; while our 
outer wardrobe is less changeable than our fleshly gar- 
ment. The wear and tear of one is much like the other, 
without in the least affecting the true, immortal man. 

The difficulties in the wav of this theory are so srreat 
that the ablest of its modern advocates have in reality 
given it up. and have substituted another in place of the 
old, orthodox view. President Hitchcock, in an exege- 
on our text, says: "It is not necessary that the 
resurrection-body should contain a Bingle particle of the 
Datura! body in order to make it identical." Now, if 
Dr. Hitchcock had said this body is not necessary to 

preserve our identity, — U*v it is nothing more than our 



////•; /:/■:> VRRtiCTlOlf. lOl 

•lily, temporal dwelling, — then he would have uttered 
peat truth, Bhowing the complete ooinoidenoe of 

ipture and science. Hut when he talks of identical 
bodies, — identical material that is not identical; bodies 
that are the same, without a single particle in common, — 
then lie talks confusion: like scholastic philosophy 
rather than modern reasoning. The Doctor's solution 
becomes more difficult than the problem; the exposition 
becomes the mystery. If our bodies remained the same 
through life, as was once supposed, and then were pre- 
served from mingling with other human organisms, we 
might reasonably believe in a carnal resurrection, if it 
were shown to be a doctrine of the Bible. But when 
the facts of God's providence, as revealed by science, 
drive the ablest advocates of the resurrection of the 
body to affirm that the body raised has nothing in com- 
mon with the body that is buried, we submit that it 
is a complete surrender on their part of this venerable 
theory. The portions of our bodies that have been cast 
off during our lives, — indeed, the several entire bodies 
that we have, w T hile living, cast off, as we have our 
garments; — these are no more foreign to the soul, to its 
integrity, than is the body we leave at death; wdiich 
will soon vanish, particle by particle, in its disorganiza- 
tion, as completely as did the body of our childhood. 

While we bow in reverence to the Gospel, as our only 
guide, we are often thankful that all its words are so 
precious and reasonable. That it lays no heavy burden 
on^our faith and love, nothing grotesque or absurd, is 
presented to our hope in the Xew T Testament. And this 
cannot be said of any book, essay, or sermon (and their 



103 I.I vim; QUBSTTOm 

name ifi legion) that lias been given to the world even 

by our ablest teachers who (luring these passing cen- 
turies have advocated and explained this doctrine of the 
resurrection of the body. 

There is another point we most mention. The great 
truth of the Gospel, "thai Christ died, was buried, and 
that he rose again the third day," — this truth, precious 
alike to all Christian faith and life, seems to many pious 
hearts to teach the resurrection of the body from the 
grave. Did not Jesus come again from Joseph's tomb 
m the same body? Did he not hear the marks of cruci- 
fixion? And did lie not ascend to heaven as though lie 
entered a cloud? Yes, so we believe. But let us re- 

member the resurrection of Christ is the drowning mira- 
cle of the Gospel, ordained for a special purpose;— not 

to show us how the dead rise, or with what bodies tl y 
come, bul to declare that Jesus was the Son of God, 
the promised Messiah. He arose, not as an example, hut 
in breaking the Roman seal upon the door of his tomb 
he set forever the seal of Cod upon his own mission and 
his authority. His resurrection the third day " was a 
miracle, not a type." For Jesus arose before his body 
saw corruption, that his apostles might know him, so 
that he could say to them, u Behold my hands and my 
feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit 
hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. . . . And 
while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he 
said unto them, Have ye here any meat? And they 
gave him a piece of broiled tish, and an honeycomb. And 

he took it, and did eat before them." 



Tin: BBBUBBBOrroD LOS 

Ho rami' fr<»m the grave in his physical body, thai his 
might know, blessed knowledge, that he 
was the promised man. approved of God; God with as; 
our resurrection and our life ! 

Hut certainly it does not follow that we BhaU rise as he 
did, with our u flesh and bones," and hence like him be 
capable of eating and drinking with our friend-. Neither 
does it follow from Scripture thai the body that came 

from the garden tomb ascended from the brOW of 
Olivet to the righl hand of God, The resurrection of 

Christ as a type was not complete until he vanished 
from sight on the Mount of Ascension. 

We shall rise as lie did, to knotO and he known; we 
shall rise in our true persdnality — so that we too can 
say, "This is I, myself;" but with a body spiritual, 
glorious, powerful, and incorruptible. 

The coming again, from the grave, of the Crucified, of 
that marred and broken body, so as to be recognized by 
his disciples, — this was needful to complete and forever 
verify the Gospel; this was needful that we might trust 
him as our "resurrection and our life. n But this official 
relation of Christ cannot mean that he is to re animate our 
dead bodies, to restore them from the effect of physical 
law; but he is our resurrection because through the 
power of his life, his incarnation and ministry, his love 
and atonement, we are raised into a new and blessed life. 
Ife is not our resurrection because he gathers again 
our scattered dust, — not because he brings the dead 
from graveyards by a mighty chemical miracle: but he 
is our resurrection because of his spiritual power, be- 
cause through him we may rise into a higher, holier life. 



K)4 LtVIlfO QUESTIONS. 

As President Finney says: "Christ, as the resurrection 
and the life is raised in the soul. He revives the divine 
image out of the spiritual death that reigns within us. 

Ilr is at the foundation of all our obedience, raising the 
BOUl from the >Iavery of lu>t to a conformity to the will 

of God." 

The vital question, then, is not so much with what 
bodies we shall rise, as with what characters. We need 
not fear regarding our bodies, since God will provide for 
us there as here: and yet we need to fear, because it is 
for us to say in what spirit we shall be clothed. It is for 
us to say whether we rise to life or to judgment: whether 
we come "with all our crimes broad blown, as flush as 
May," or whether we rise %0 walk in white, cleansed 
from our sins through repentance and the blood of 
Jesus Christ our Saviour. 



VI. 
Tin: Price ob the Prize, 

" Strive to enter in &1 the strait gate.' 1 — Luke xiii. 24. 

We are told that Henry Clay once said, ill a public 

meeting: "I am not a Christian. I am sorrv to sav 
this, for I wish I were. But I hope that some day I 
shall be." This confession and condition of the great 
statesman were plainly the result of false views — most 
false and pernicious, as it seems to me — of human obliga- 
tion, and of our relation to the government and provi- 
dence of God. Mr. Clay did not mean to say that he 
was in theory an infidel, but he had a crude, deceptive 
idea of a Christian life. He regarded Christianity as 
desirable; yet to him it was unattainable, though he 
hoped that some time he might be made an heir of the 
grace of God. 

But it is most certainly true — nothing is more certain 
— that every one who hears the Gospel, who is surrounded 
by its influences, may at once, to-day, become a Christian. 
There is imposed upon no one the dreadful task of con- 
tinuing in sin, of living in transgression and corruption. 
There can be no reason why we should not. if we ear- 
nestly desire so to do, turn at once from the evil that is in 
our hands : no reason why we should not at once "do 

justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God." There 

105 



106 Ll\'f\<; QVE6T10N& 

are no cruel, invidious distinctions in this matter; no 
difference is made : but, without resped of persons, all 
arc equally eligible— if willing — candidates to the election 
of sainthood; for all arc freely invited and are equally 
welcome to the priceless blessings of divine grace. 

How strange the delusion thai our Heavenly Father 
can tantalize us by placing a glittering prize just beyond 
our reach! Bow anti-Christian the thought that lie 
threatens us with endless torment for not doing or being 

when we arc helpless having Only the ability to hope, 

suffer, and despair ! Under the influence of the Gospel, 

this dark fatalism is passing away : yet we sometimes 
meet it, even in the house of worship. J onee heard a 
good man — agood preacher — say, while urging the impor- 
tance of prayer : "God can make all these unconverted 
people Christians— he can make them Christians at 
onee : ami maybe he will if we are earnest in prayer." 
If this be true, with perfect justice every sinner could 
plead " Not Guilty" before Cod and the world. 

But I hear the Lord Jesus saying: "Strive to enter 
in at the strait gate : for many will seek," or desire, ''to 
enter," but, because they do not choose, strive, they 
"shall not bo able." I hear the appeal of Cod by the 
prophet : " And ye shall seek me, and find me when ye 
shall search for me with all your heart." 

Do you ask the question, How. when, may 1 becomes 
Christian ? Listen to the Word : " Behold, now is the 
accepted time ; behold, now is the day of salvation." 
u Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? 
saitli the Lord God: and not that he should return 

from bis ways and live?" "Cast away from you all your 



THE PRICE OF TEE PRIZE. 107 

tran ons, whereby ye have transj 1; and make 

yon a Dew heart and a new spirit : for why will ye die?" 
" Today, after so long a time; to-day, if ye will, hear 
his \ ; harden no1 yonr hearts. " Christianity is the 
pel o\' God, because it opens the kingdom of heaven 
t<> ail. "And the angel Baid unto the shepherds. Fear 
not : for, behold, I bring yon good tidings of great 
Joy, whieh shall be to all people." 

christian salvation has often been presented as some- 
thing to be received in an arbitrary manner, because 
ot' some arbitrary act, something done for as or put 
apon as, instead of its being a growth and power of 
love, a principleof life, action, and being. Salvation is 
not so truly the opening of prison doors to the convicl 
as it is his turning from the false, haggard, and wicked 
to the true, beautiful, and good. It. is not change of 

place, hut State J being cleansed from Bin, a deliverance 

from both the love and guilt of moral evil. Christ saves 
by leading us to love him, — to prefer him above our chief 
joy, — and hence to love purity, righteousness, and God : 
inspiring the receptive mind with divine emotions, and 
ever quickening the sluggish heart with divine life. 

"Strive to enter in at the strait gate : for many, I 
say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be 
able." While this is one of the Saviour's most stern and 
rugged declarations, it yet brings to us needed instruc- 
tion, warning, and encouragement. There are many who 
desire, without choosing ; who seek, without striving: 
hence, fail of attaining. Their inability is no secret, no 
fatality, but it adds to their sin ; for they themselves fur- 



108 LIVING QUESTIONS. 

nish that which we all knew is always, and everywhere, 
a fixed condition of failure and defeat. 

Taking life as it is, there are not in these word- doubt 
and gloom, —not the suggestion of a dungeon upon wh< 
massive walls is written, " No hope/ 3 — but, rather, cheer- 
ing assurance, as well as solemn exhortation. They 
should destroy our presumption and rouse US from a 
false and fatal feeling of security, while inspiring with 
hope and leading to earnest effort. True, there are dif- 
ficulties in the way of salvation, but they are not insu- 
perable ; there are obstacles, but not insurmountable. 

To enter the kingdom is infinite gain, endless bliss. 
If the prize were worthless, it would be foolish to strive ; 
if unattainable, useless. But the value of the prize, and 
the assurance of BUCCess, should stimulate to earnest en- 
deavor. If we cannot win, vain is the sacrifice of painful 
effort Hut we may : hence it is wise to gird for the bat- 
tle, strive for the victory. The doctrine of the text is: 
the crown may he obtained, the goal may be gained, the 
battle may be won; hence, agonize — strive ! 

In becoming Christians, we are not to wait. Our atti- 
tude is not watching, but striving; not like one expect- 
ing some stroke of good fortune, but earnestly laboring. 
We are not to be passive, like the inmate of a hospital 

who undergoes a Burgical operation : but active, like the 

soldier who wins a mural crown or first enters a deadly 
breach. In becoming Christians, we are not like clay in 
the hands of a potter, but like the devoted hero who 
follows his commander. " Patient waiting" is a Chris- 
tian virtue : but it is rather an attainment of sainthood 
than a condition of du-cipleship. We may learn to wait 



TUK PRICE OF THE PRIZE 109 

r we have learned to labor. Aft.T gaining the vie- 

faith and overcoming the world, then comes the 
.»n <»f patimt continuance : tor to wail patiently in 

sin, as if it were a virtue or a neees>itv, is to mock at 
i. The time to rest is after we have 'ffought the 

good fight and finished our course." Beyond the sea, 
beyond the wilderness, glistens the land of promise; hut 

this is n<>t our n 

It seems eery strange that Biblical teachers should 
have so long held and taught those paralyzing doctrines 

that lead the sinner to suppose that his true attitude is 
waiting, .-till waiting, until God shall be pleased to re- 
in him from sin. How different are all the figures, 
all the teachings of Scripture ! To the soul struggling in 

sin comes the exhortation and the helping hand. " Lay 
hold on eternal life V s To the moral idler eomes the 
question and command : % * Why stand ye here idle ? Go, 
work !" To the dweller on the plains or in the vale of 
Sodom comes the appeal : " Up, get you out of this 
place, for the Lord will destroy this city. Look not be- 
hind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain ; escape to 
the mountain, lest thou be consumed." To the careless : 
u Seek ye the Lord while he may be found ; call ye upon 
him while he is near." To all, as he passes by, Jesus 
says, " Follow me !" To all desiring a higher, nobler 
life the Apostle cries, "Watch ye, stand fast in the 
faith, quit you like men, be strong." " Thou, therefore, 
endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." 

I w r ould not cast the shadow of a doubt upon the 
gracious providence or paternal sovereignty of God. He 
is a sovereign, absolute, eternal ; not as a ruler over mat- 



L10 LIVING QUESTIONS. 

ter only, but also over mind. Be rules not by force 
alone, but also by motive. Men are not like trees, and 
stones, and -tars: bu1 U'rc. responsible. Man, as a crea- 
ture, in his formation and endowment, ifl like clay; 
God, ae creator, in the exercise of Ins omnipotence, — in 
fashioning body and mind, in bestowing form and 
faculty, — is like a potter. Be gives to one a talent for 
business ; to another, the gift of healing, or teaching ; to 
another, the genius of construction, or the inspiration of 
the poet : to one man he gives ten talents ; to another, 
one or live ; here he calls a man to till the ground, there 
one to plow the sea : — the mind and body of every one 
being Formed for some vocation, so that a true life is the 
completion of a divine plan. 

Bui man. as a moral being, in relation to moral law, is 
7iot like an inert lump of clay. And God, as moral ruler, 
sways the scepter of his authority and love over those 
who can ehoose good and reject evil — choose life, and 
live ; or death, and die. And with this lie cannot in- 
terfere, any more than he can do w T rong or violate his 
own government, lie makes our bodies — yes, our minds 
— as the vessel on the wheel is made u down at the pot- 
ter's house, ,J or by his own infinite force, will, and wis- 
dom ; hut he makes our characters, molding them 
into the divine image, by leading us to seek, love, and 
choose righteousness and truth. It is glorious to guide 
the sun, to roll the .-tars on their eternal round, to un- 
fold the splendor c,\' the midnight sky : " to bring forth 
Maz/aroth in hifi season, and guide Arcturus with his 
sons" I Bui it is far more glorious to rule mind than 
any form of matter; to lead the heart to love, and the 



THE PRIOR OF THE PRIZE. 1 11 

will to bow in rolunl rerence and obedience to the 

commands of heaven, High the tin-one of love, 

1 divined is the Bcepter of the moral universe, Your 

Bllenceasa parenj Lb not in being able to force your 

ohild to comply with your commands, bui in leading him 

into ha glad and willing obedience. All you gain 

e is a total loss; for your success asa ruler and 

• •tit depends on being able to induce your child, of its 
cord, to Beek ami pursue righi ways. Those who 
rereignty of <'«"! consist only of resistless 
force destroj its moral grandeur, while degrading the 
I to the condition of a mere machine. They do 
not realize the infinite realms of love. — the exceeding 
glory <>f the boundless kingdom of affection and reason, 
— where God rules, not by almightmess, but because the 
hearts of adoring millions thrill with love and burn with 
devotion, freely < -acting their crowns before him, a joy- 
ous, willing offering. 

If there is a difference between conversion and the 
"new birth/' we may regard the one as a duty, the 
other as an experience. Man seeks, obeys ; God bestows 
the sealing witness of the Holy Spirit. The prodigal 
11 arises and goes to his father ;" the father receives him 
with a kiss, robes and feasts him. One is penitent sub- 
mission, the other an inspiration. When one turns from 
evil and does that which is right, he is converted ; when 
the heart is filled with such affection that obedience is 
bliss and sacrifice a joy, when duty becomes privilege 
and law is forgotten in love, then the soul has passed 
from conversion to the heights of regeneration. 

The plain doctrine of the text is, that, as moral, re- 



112 LIVING QUESTIONS. 

sponsible beings, in the affairs of spiritual life, we have 
something to do ; that, as the price is precious, the de- 
mand is argent ; that, to gain the kingdom of heaven, 
we most, like those who would win in athletic games 

ancient or modern, strive, or agonize ! This condition 

guards every treasure and sentinels every prize. It is 
not new ; hut old and universal as human want, wealth, 
and attainment. The Gospel is in harmony with all 
experience : for there can be no success, glory, power, nor 
treasure without the price of earnest effort. There is no 
excellence, no rational value, no golden fruit of protes- 
ts trade, or position, — no good of grace or nature, mate- 
rial or spiritual, — that does not say: "Unless you take up 
your cross and follow me persistently, zealously, with 
single-eyed devotion, you cannot possess or win." The 
wealth of the world is given to us on the conditions of 
tod and strife. 

I said: "There are latent harvests waiting to spring 
from the ground ; latent vineyards whose vines are 
rich with the purple vintage; gold in the mountain; 
silver veining the rock ; gems on the floor of the ocean; 
— all are yours : but you must tunnel the hills for the 
silver, crush the quartz, and dive beneath the emer- 
aid sea for gold and pearls. " Then, better, God has 
given as a universe of truth. JIqvo are treasures of 
more value than bars of gold, or richest gems ; but there 
is no royal road to wisdom, no immunity from toil : for 
over the temple of knowledge, as over the gate of heaven. 
Lb inscribed, u Strive : for strait is the gate !" We need 
not wonder or stumble because we are bidden to take 
and bear our cross, to strive for heaven, Even Mam- 



THE PRIOR OF THE PRIZE. L13 

moil demands tin* same; and human glory, thai withers 

'ike its own laurel wreath, baa this oondition. Why not 
the fadeless crown ? 

u ( >h, heed the solemn appeal ! The Lord Jesus, stand- 
like the angel in the sun, with the eternal world tor 
a background, clothed in garments white as snow, call- 
ing us to honor, and glory, and immortality, says only, in 
behalf of these higher things, what the whole world 
says of its poo^, miserable, groveling things, — * Strive ! ' ,? 

Hut some hearer Bays: " ¥ou make Christianitya hard 

and wearisome task; and, because of the strife and saeri- 

fice demanded, there is not the unity that you claim. 

Christianity does not harmonize with the laws of our 
■ 

early life, with our youthful impulses, with the fullness 
and freshness of our physical being; for each drop of 
our young Mood seems to sing. And see how bright and 
fair all nature is— how full of music, overflowing with 
gladness in this our vernal equinox! Does not every- 
thing harmonize rather with our youthful love of pleas- 
ure? Does not everything say to us now, 'Be happy '? 
But religion calls to strife and toil: its symbol is a cross." 
Xav, stop, I pray you, and take another look b°fore 
you thus east this cross away. I know there is the 
bright, joyous springtime, — but how brief and fleeting! 

"Oh, how this Spring of Life resembleth 
The uncertain glory of an April day: 
Which now shows all the beauty of the sun, 
And by and by a cloud takes all away!" 

This is certainly a rough, rugged world, more like a 
battlefield than a festive hall; more like a voyage across 



1 14 LIVING QUESTIONS. 

the emrging deep, than a sail t<>v pleasure on some un- 
ruffled lakelet. 
Then, again, the truest inpulses <>f our youth are not 

opposed to the claims and call of Christ. Instead of 
being discordant, they blend in complete harmony; for 
mean, hard, sordid, groreling passions do not ordina- 
rily belong to the young. Every pulse from fresh, young 
heart.- is rather towards goodness, fidelity, and generosity; 
as in the morning we dream less of selfish ambition 
than of the higher aims and nobler issues of a true life. 
Truly, it is in the old, not in the young, that nature and 
grace are most at war. We die daily either to sin or in- 
nocence, and are always dying to this world. 

" While man is growing, life is in decrease, 
And cradles rock us nearer to the tomb. 
Our birth is nothing but our death begun, 
AjB tapers waste, that instant they take tire." 

Yet, strange, but true, unless we die to sin we are 
more and more alive to death, liking the earth better 
the nearer we come to it, growing towards the dust in 
affection and interest, and away from the spiritual; so 
that the gross man naturally grovels, while the heaven- 
born heart mounts up with wings. 

We despise an idle, frivolous life that heeds no call to 
duty: that Bees no worthy goal, no work to do, no prize 
to win; that hears no summons inspiring to enter the 
lists against moral evil, and do battle for the right in the 
tournament of life. There 18 true harmony between the 
promptings of the youthful heart and even the stern de- 
mands of religion There IB often a seeming contradic- 



mi: PRICE OP TBS PRIZE, llfi 

tion in life, because our view is partial; while, on its 

higher plane, perfect accord, ultimate unity, are found. 

For instance, what we often desire most tor ourselyea we 

t r* 1 as worthless or a blemish in others. What we 

fondly anticipate for ourselves in the future, we despise 

in our past. What seems precious to our hope is often 

worthless in our memory. We long for rest, ease, as we 

look forward; hut we rejoice and glory in our toil and 
strife as we look backward. While we art' planning for 
peace, for a lazy or aristocratic quiet of affluence, we yel 
uniformly despise the idler, looking with reproof or 
contempt upon those who now realize our future ideal. 
We would avoid strife: yet we feel there is no glory, no 
grandeur, or value in life save as it stands forth in suc- 

aful struggles or in heroic, faithful endeavor. We 
wish to retire from business: yet to the true man idle- 
ness is more laborious than labor, more irksome and 
wearing than rugged toil; while, without the industry we 
would shirk, or the conflict we would avoid, there is in 
our life nothing of worth or of beauty — nothing but 
leaves ! We would have our way smooth before us: still 
we only cherish with satisfaction in our past the energy 
and daring by which we conquered every obstacle and 
scaled every rugged height in our pathway. 

Talk of avoiding the difficult gate, the cross and toil 
of the Christian, because our young heart says, with its 
strong, healthy beat, "Be happy"! Is that the great 
aim, the mission of life? Are there no sublime, infinite 
realities ? Are there no demands for heroic action, for 
divine thought, sacrifice, consecration? Is there no work 
to do ; no battle to win ? Or is life only an empty holi- 



116 UVJDST6 QUESTIONS. 

day — without duty, without a sir* red vocation, without 
eternal love, aoble purposes, immortal deeds? 

The idea of many is, to tell it plainly, a youth of idle 

levity, compensated for byan old aire of severe, unblest, 
flowerless, pulseless piety, [f anything can be mean in 

purpose, though there may be Borne dwarfish virtue in 
its consummation, it seems to me it is in such presump- 
tuous mockery and robbery of God ! Bow terribly false 

such an ideal! And it is felt to be so by every youthful, 
hence generous, heart. 

To see the young, with elastic energies and noble fac- 
ulties, formed in the divine image, standing on the 
threshold 6f endless being, at the entrance of the 
solemn temple of life, yet standing without reverence, 
without adoring love or humble offering, without up- 
lifted heart or uncovered brow; looking along the dim 
corridors of coming time with empty laugh and jaunty 
air, with boastful heart and reckless plans, with corrod- 
ing lusts and polluted lips; — what can be more sad, un- 
natural, revolting? Nothing, save the counterpart, the 
companion-piece, to this wretched picture: An old, 
blighted, shattered man, whose heart has become a 
bundle of rusty valves slowdy moving with icy blood, 
from which has ebbed forever all enthusiasm and fresh- 
ness, all Btrength and affection. And now, when the 
palsied hand can grasp no more pleasure, and the feel 
are manacled by disease,— when time and lust have con- 
quered, to see such a one wait in peevish indifference, 

or put on the mask of religion to assume a piety that is 

the mere precipitate of youthful obligation, of claims 

that were long whipped and hunted from the heart, mis- 



TBB PRIGS OF THE PRIZE, 1 17 

taking now the loss of passion for growth in grace, the 
impotence of exhausted nature for the triumphs of the 
spirit, — this is the fitting, terrible sequel of a youth de- 
voted to Belfish pleasure. Oh, it' there are no tints of 
heaven, no sweet promise of immortality, no approving 
smile of God, in the ha/A' of life's morning, we have little 

Mm to expect them in the light of our noontide or 
amid the somber shadows of our evenio 

How different the mellow ripeness, the tranquil rest 
ami hopeful blessedness, of a soul whose old age is the 
golden harvest of youthful diligence — of sowing to the 
Spirit! Then the form may be bent; the u head may be 
covered with snow, as the hill that is nearest to heaven;" 
the body may be old: but the heart is young — young 
the angels are; young, because of immortal life, that 
seemed so precious and was so earnestly sought for, and 
so surely gained, in life's rosy morning. 

"Strive to enter in at the strait gate!" If we must 
strive, is not youth the appointed, the auspicious time? 
When we are replete with life and energy; when we love 
to scale the mountain, and breast the wave, and face the 
storm; when our limbs are sinewy, and our senses keen; 
when we are quick to hear the bugle summon the brave 
to action, or ready to follow the drum to battle if duty 
calls; when we can shake all languor from the heart, as 
the lion shakes the dewdrops from his mane; — then is 
certainly the time for successful striving. How clear 
that there is perfect harmony between Christianity and 
the true, natural impulses of early life! 

How this stern word "strive " thrills and cheers when 
we think of the possibilities that glisten beyond; of the 



118 LIVING QUESTIONS. 

work and reward that arc before every earnesi soul; of 
what may be done, even by the feeblest hand, if nerved 
and prompted bya Loving heart! Strive for the beauti- 
ful and good — for the true, the fadeless, the noble, the 

heroic! Let us not forget the best, hut, with corrected 

estimates of life, seek for the riches of time and eternity, 
earth and heaven, each according to its intrinsic value. 
Strive for divine communion, for reconciliation with 
1, that you may be consciously, and with an experi- 
ence of unspeakable bliss, his dear children, in affection- 
ate sympathy with the universal Father, and in harmony 
and love witli his whole family. Be not weary in well- 
doing! " Learn to labor and to wait," as well as to 
strive; for the promise is, " Be thou faithful, and I will 
give thee a crown." 

" Heaven is not reached at a single bound; 
But we build the ladder by which we rise 
From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies 
And we mount to its summit, round by round." 

As a last word of encouragement, and yet of warning, 
let me remind you that, in gaining this prize of eternal 
life, there is upon you not only the necessity of earnest, 
but of consecrated, united, persistent effort. Here no 
wavering, trimming hesitation can possibly win. It is, 
'• Ask and ye shall receive;" " Seek and ye shall find;" 
" Knock and it shall be opened:'' "Strive, agonize, and 
ye shall enter the kingdom." Thus, without repetition, 
there is to be an ever-increasing desire, whole-hearted- 
nesSj intensity of purpose, until all powers, gifts, facul- 
ties, fibers, and impulses of your being are one, in their 
complete devotion to the golden purpose yon seek to gain. 



////•; PRICE Of TSB PRIZE. L19 

Think not, as we have already said, thai this is some- 
thing exceptional or strange in the providence of God, 
It is always true thai the higher, richer, the prize, the 
ater the price; the more complete must be the conse- 
cration and the self-sacrifice as conditions of attainment. 
We are not only to win a precious guerdon, but we are 
ourselves in this to be made nobler, purer, diviner, by 
py step, and conflict, and trial; so that we may be 
like gold from the crucible, so that we may be ripe for 

heaven. 

Such are the conditions, under divine providence, that 
guard even temporal good, that our manhood is often 
either lost or won in its pursuit. Were it possible to 
gain wealth, wisdom, high position, power, by accident 
or at a cheap rate, they would be to us of little use or 
value. 

There is ever a seeming divine indifference to us, a pa- 
ternal neglect, a loving withdrawal of aid, until, through 
thought, conviction, and desire, the whole being comes 
at last to be a unit of intense devotion, and the best we 
have, and all we have, is freely given to obtain the prize 
in view, to reach the goal before us. When we present 
such an offering, then comes the fire of God's accept- 
ance; then comes the triumph of victory, — while the 
victor is himself the noblest, grandest part of the con- 
quest. 

Every great enterprise, reform, revolution of the world 
gives us grander men, so that we and they are doubly 
enriched — not only by what they earn, but what they 
become. God waits in mercy and withholds the prize 
in deepest love, that, through our heroic devotion and 



130 UVIXG QUESTIONS. 

deathless faith, he may say to the true heart, at last, 
"Well done;" u Ee that overoometh, and keepeth my 

works unto the end, to him will 1 give power over the 
nations: ami I will give him the morning star." 
The sublimer the height, the more difficult the path; 

the richer the prize, the more rugged the toil: the more 
precious the end, the more complete must be tlie saeriliee. 
"Strive to enter in at the strait gate," not only that 
we may gain the kingdom, — just pass the barrier, — but 
that there may be for us " an abundant entrance;" that 
we may go crowned with the glory of God, while the 
" harpers are harping with their harps." 



VII. 
A Royal SENSUALIST. 

"Vanity of Vanities, Bftith the Preacher! vanity of vanities; all 

is vanity." — Eccles. i. 8. 

Wl frankly Bay we believe Deither this Preacher, nor 

tliis part of his sermon. These words are not the truth 
of (ioil, hut expressions of skepticism, of despair, of 
atheism. You may think this abrupt and startling, as 
we have read our text from the Holy Scriptures. We 
believe the Bible, and we believe this book of Ecclesiastes 
to be canonical; but we deny this assertion of the royal 
Preacher, though he was one of the greatest and wisest 
of men. 

There are many things in the Scriptures that w T e do 
not believe ; true faith demands their rejection. Some of 
the words of Satan are recorded in the Bible, and they 
all tend to confirm the character for truth and veracity 
he has had from the beginning. How false and slander- 
ous the unqualified declaration he once made, — "All 
that a man hath will he give for his life''! We know 
this is not true. We know there have been and are 
men w T ho would not give up truth or duty, the service 
of God or the ministry of love, to prolong their lives. 

The Devil believes that " every man has his price," — 

no doubt firmly believes in "total depravity. n But 

121 



122 LIVING QUESTIONS. 

there are men of incorruptible integrity. There turae 
been patriots no tyrant could seduce by flattery or gold; 
humble Christians who have "counted all things but 
loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, 
and for whom they have willingly Buffered the loss of all 
things. " 

And wo know that all is not ' k vanity of vanities." 
Honor, justice, fidelity, charity, exist. There are heroes 
and heroines. There are men thai no king, or million- 
aire, or monopoly, or party can buy; whose firmness is 
like the hills, whose charity is wide as the world. 

But let us examine our text with less haste and as- 
surance, that we may learn its lessons and see why it is 
found in the Bible. Though these words of Solomon 
are plainly not inspired, yet they are placed before us, 
by the authority of inspiration, for our instruction — to 
benefit and bless. 

" Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vani- 
ties: all is vanity." Although these words rasp us and 
provoke contradiction, yet we must admit that but few 
things and fewer men and women are complete, rounded 
into perfection, without lack or redundancy, while we 
confess that real life presents the most abrupt, striking, 
and often painful moral contrasts. 

You will not search in vain for sweet flowers even on 
the street that is beaten hard by the hot feet of ambi- 
tion or by the hasty tread of avarice. Our marts of 
traffic are not without moral bloom and beauty, and in 
all the relations of life — own the most worldly — we may 
men faithful to conscience and true to holy princi- 
ples. We may find the Golden Rule prevailing where 



.1 R0TA1 3UAL2 123 

least expected, or maxims of selfishness where ire Looked 
for justice and charity. Yei we may Bearcfa long and 
anxiously before we find a character withoul blemish, a 
life without fault. We may look long before we find a 
a man without delinquencies, tor wisdoni is often 
mated with folly, knowledge with ignorance; while the 
Hike and the brutal, the divine and tbe demoniac, 
the pure and the profane, lie under the same roof or 

in dwell in the same soul. 

We often see combined in the mysterious contrasts of 
our humanity qualities the most opposite and powers 
the most divei 

Eere is a fountain that seems — though it is said to be 
impossible — to send forth both sweet and hitter waters; 
here is a heart both tender and fierce — full at times of 
mercy, and again of cruelty, as if blending in the same 
spirit the wolf and the lamb, as you open the different 
springs and issues of life. 

It is almost impossible without seeming extravagance 
to present this fairly. We may often see in the same 
heart that which suggests spotless heights and polluted 
depths, the pure snow of virtue and the stagnant marshes 
of sin. AVe may, you know T , climb the mountain whose 
top glistens before us, crowned with unsullied whiteness; 
but when we gain the summit there yaw T ns before us the 
dark, revolting mouth of a volcano. 

How mysterious these contrasts in human life! We 
see nothing like this among the lower animals. The 
wolf is always true to itself — neither more nor less than 
a wolf. The tiger is always the bloodthirsty terror of 
the jungle, and the lion the dread of the desert. The 



124 LIVING QUESTIONS, 

lamb is forever the Bymbol of innocence; the serpent, of 

wisdom; ami the dove, of spiritual purity and affection. 
Bui man, though of one blood, combines all the ex- 
tremes of being: he presents the cunning of the serpent, 
the Biercenessof the tiger; while the lamb and the bird 
may symbolize his gentleness and love. 

These contrasts are suggested to us by the author of 
our text the royal Solomon. 

A>k a child, u Who was the wisest man?" and, if 
taught as children once were, the ready answer will be, 
"Solomon/ 1 And there is good reason for this reply; for 
we may read in the Good Hook that %> God gave Solomon 
wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and large- 
ness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea-shore. 
And Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the 
children of the Bast, and all the wisdom of Egypt. For 
he was wiser than all men, — wiser than the sons of 
Mahol: and his fame was in all the nations round about." 
This seems altogether conclusive 4 . 

Now if you should ask, kk AVho was the most foolish 
man?" the answer from the authority of Scripture 
would be the same. For Solomon says of himself, — and 
he ought to know, — " As it happeneth to a fool, so it 
happeneth to me, even to me." u I applied mine heart 
to know wisdom and the reason of things, and to know 
the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and mad- 
ness." And he learned this terrible lesson not for him- 
self only, but for us all. 

Yes, Solomon, the king, touched these extremes. In 

wisdom standing as the light, guide, and teacher of his 

age, the foremost man of the world. In boyhood, as 



l BOTAl SKN8UAUBT. L26 

prinoeand ruin-, how pure, gentle, humble, reverend and 

teachable he was! And how full ol promise, how bril- 
liant, tin* opening of his reign ! You remember his 

prayer for divine aid. Hut alas that BUCh a cloudy 

midday and murky evening should follow such a morn- 
ing ! How high he soared, going up in the rosy dawn 

— like the lark singing at the very gate of heaven; 
then how low he Btooped— swooping down From the 

pure sky. vulture-like, to batten on corruption! 

A- thf grandeur of a temple is revealed by its stately 
ruins, so the greatness and glory of man arc seen in his 

wreck and fall. 

This boy-prince was eminently successful. lie was 

for u time a model, an ideal king, a true leader and 
shepherd of his people. Anointed by divine authority 

as the successor of his illustrious father, hailed with en- 
thusiasm by a loyal, united nation, lie was humbled 
rather than elated by the splendor of his position, and 
by the solemn duties that rested upon him. He felt his 
weakness, and like a true prince, a true man, he humbly 
asked help from the God of his fathers. At the begin- 
ning of his career there came to him in a prophetic 
dream the offered choice, "so often imagined in fiction, 
and actually presented in real life:" "The Lord appeared 
to Solomon, and said, Ask what I shall give thee." How 
wise he was in choosing wisdom! Riches, honor, life, 
the spoils of ambition, were before him; but his choice 
was that of every great king— yes, of every young man, 
both then and now, who, standing on the threshold of 
life, feels the solemn duties that rest upon him. 

"lam but a child. . . , Give therefore thv servant 



126 LI VIM i QUE8TI0N& 

an understanding heart to judge thy people, thai I may 
discern between good and bad : for who is able to judj 
this thy bo greal a people?" Be was wiser than the 

rulers of his time in that he humbly asked for wisdom 
from the invisible God. 

Asa ruler. Solomon was BuccessfuL The nation pros- 
pered. Enterprise was stimulated, manufactures flour- 
ished^ and even commerce, spreading her white wings, 
brought sudden wealth, strange luxuries, and wonders 
from the Indian seas, to this people among the hills. 

lie was also an earnest student, a royal scientist. And 
then he rebuilt Jerusalem, he enriched the nation, he 
extended his power until his fame and glory filled all 
the Orient. And no wonder; for with all our modern 
splendor we have nothing to compare with his royal 
magnificence. Over what a court and palace he pre- 
sided] His story seems fabulous. The furniture of his 
tables was of the gold of Ophir; none of the vessels were 
of silver: ; 'it was nothing accounted of in the days of 
Solomon. For the king made silver to be in Jerusalem 
as stones, and cedars made he to be as the sycamore 
trees that are in the lowland, for abundance." 

The daily provision for his household was thirty oxen, 
a hundred sheep, ninety measures of flour and meal; 
besides harts, and roebueks, and fallow-deer, and fatted 
fowl. 

Bis palace, ol exceeding splendor, was roofed and 

shielded with gold, for on the side of its tower were hung 
a thousand Bhields of this precious metal ; his throne was 
of ivory, his "Gate of .Justice" — that was indeed "the 
throne of the Qouse oi David," where in judicial an- 



.1 ROTAL SENSUALIST, 127 

thority "he sal on the back of a golden boll, while 
under bia teet and on each ride of the steps he was 

irded b golden lions- lions ol Judah;" with the 
widest and mosi peaceful empire of all the kings of 

ael — ** his dominion extending from sea to Bea, and 
from the river [ Euphrates] to the ends of the earth:" all 
this, with bonor and --lory untold, it would Beam, if ever 
man did or could enjoy this world and be satisfied, this 
Eavored king, whose name was a promise of peace, must 

have hern the man. Yet in vexation. >atiety, and despair 

he cried, " Vanity of vanities; all is vanity !" There was 
no Byronic p rion in this: the loathing of life was 

real: he was honest in his misanthropy and sincere in 
his despair. 

Yet nothing that earth can furnish was beyond his 
reach; nothing that appetite can crave was beyond his 

power. His wide dominions were laid under a tax to his 
lust, and all the East was made to contribute to his de- 
sires. His was the most perfect and splendid earthly 
success. But can this satisfy the heart ? Can all the 
realms of sense meet and fill the demands of the soul? 
Here, if ever, man must be content with earthly good. 
If men will sin, will attempt to live without God, then 
we are glad such a trial has been made, — such a royal, 
perfect experiment as this of Solomon the AYise. He 
- in history for our benefit. He stands an Eddystone 
i on the treacherous rocks of dissipation and sensu- 
ality, easting a lurid warning across the ages, and point- 
ing the way to holiness, because of the utter failure of 
royal, sovereign, omnipotent sin. 

And he seems to recognize this as a part of his mission, 



128 UVIXG QUESTIONS. 

for m his old age, after having tried everything else, he 
turns preacher and writes at least one sermon. 

This discourse has been a greal puzzle to Biblical in- 
terpreters. And no wonder it seems difficult to under- 
id the royal Preacher, for, as we read, we find things 

both good and had. At times it eheers the pious, and 
thm by its unbelief startles the skeptical. It is ortho- 
dox as Calvin, and. again, as infidel as Voltaire, Over 
and over again it has been condemned as ancanonical. 

Parte of this discourse are intensely stoical, though writ- 
ten long before Zeno taught in the Porch at Athens. It 
is epicurean, though uttered centuries before Epicurus 
established the philosophy of the Garden, It is bitterly 
cynical, though the rough Diogenes had not taught from 
his fcub; while its materialism anticipates some of the 
dreams and assertions of this modern, godless philoso- 
phy. 

All of this puzzling sermon cannot be true, for it is 
contradictory. It advocates atheism: yet where can you 
find a more humble acknowledgment of (rod? It ridi- 
cule- justice and virtue : yet where will you find Buch ap- 
peals in behalf of their infinite value ? Truth and right- 
eousnesfi are accounted shams: yet you cannot find in 
the Bible more solemn and pathetic warnings against 
sin. The Preacher tea fatalist, yet declares in favor of 
the freedom of the will. Be seems to encourage the 
reckless, the improvident, yet his maxims of worldly pru- 
dence reveal a grasp of thought, a keen insight, with a 
beauty of expression, that our prince of economic phi- 
tphers could only feebly imitate. 

And, vet, do we not find the truthfulness and value 



1 EOTAl SRN8UALI8T \^.) 

his discourse jusl here, —in its oontradictionSj in its 
trasta and paradoxes? The appeals of eyi] may be- 
ne the strongest motiyes tor righteousness, while the 
retributions of sin are sure pledges of the rewards of vir- 
tue. Who has not noticed how the sunshine brings ou< 
the blackness of a cloud, and how the darker the storm 
the brighter the rainbow ? 

But, no matter what our theories, we should remem- 
ber that this favored king fell from grace— fell because 

and the peculiar temptations of his po 

>n. He became a royal prodigal, a religious wanderer 

to Btrai a spiritual adventurer, seeking, out- 

side the care and guidance of his father's God, to solve 
the dark problem of life. What is the meaning and the 
worth of this brief existence? "Who knoweth what is 
good for man ?" This at least was one of the questions 
lie would answer. But, not content with theory, he 
would prove what there was in tins world, or rather in a 
godless world. Hence, while the sermon may not pre- 
sent abstract truth, yet it is a true delineation of the 
heart in such a cpiest, — of the man wandering in the 
mazes of sin. groping amid the fumes of a sensual idola- 
try, sinking in a Dead Sea of lust and dissipation. 

It is easy to see that this is a sad discourse — one of the 
saddest, I think, ever written. And. though its author 
appeared one of the gayest and grandest of men, lie was, 
in truth, one of the most joyless and hopeless of all. 

While il is not true that " all is vanity," yet to some men 
everything may so appear: and this sermon seems to voire. 
in the most eloquent and truthful way, the despair and 
disappointment of all sensualism. It is the wailing cry 



L90 l.l VI Mi QUB8TI0N& 

of thefatherless — of those who have Bold their birthright 

of spirit for fleshly good, it may be for a paltry mess of 

pottage, it may be for the throne of an empire ; bat in 

either case they have wasted their Bubstance, and arc 

ped in poverty. It is a cry from the far country, the 

fammr-Miiittcn land of the prodigaL It is the common 
cry. heard through the ages, of those who have gained the 
world and losl their souls; who have conquered all but 
self, and gained all except God, "our portion forever." 
It is the appropriate, truthful cry of atheism, of every 
godless heart, whether of king or peasant, merchant- 
prince or intellectual giant. 

Bui still it may be asked, how are we to read this 
dark portion of Scripture so as to he instructed, edified ? 
This hook of Ecclesia>tes. without doubt, was the work 
of Solomon's old age, and is a transcript of at least a por- 
tion of his own life. It mirrors the man. Its good and 
evil, its truth and falsehood, its piety and impiety, are 
the expression not merely of the pen but of the practice 
of the Preacher. It is the man, the king, behind the 
sermon that gives it meaning and emphasis. 

s.»me men are infidel in theory, yet live as if they had 

a d< i faith : that is, it is possible for one to be 

better than his creed, as we know that some are much 

worse : but no such discrepancy was found here. For 
this royal Preacher Bays : " Whatsoever mine eyes de- 
sired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart 
from any JOy. w u I gave my heart toknow madness and 
folly. I BOUghl in mine heart to lay hold on folly, till I 
might see what was L r <>od for the sons of men." 

A- we have said, this great king, seduced from his 



.1 U07AL 8EK8UAZIST. 131 

piety and the parity ol bis youth, bad fallen deep and 
far: had fallen into the most Bplendid dissoluten 
into the basest idolatry: ami then, like all men without 
I, be made theattempl to reach heaven some other 
way; to reach its bliss by selfishness instead of by sacrifice ; 
to conquer good and win its crown by the enchantments 
and divinations of evil : or, in other words, to till and 
satisfy a BOUl wider than creation's rim with what the 
eye Can see, and tic hand grasp, and the heart can enjoy. 
of materia] good. It was the same old effort, still con- 
tinned, to find life in death, and to solve the problem 
of being in a world without God, without providence and 
eternity, in which to ripen his purpog 

This sermon is the Bumming up of Solomon's career. 
It is a frank confession : his experience of irreligion and 
infidelity : the results of his experiments in solving the 
problem of life, its object and worth. It gives us the 
result of his apostasy, and also a glimpse of his return. 

We have in this confession a spiritual autobiography, 
the outcome of the grandest effort ever made, or that 
ever will be made, to run a kingdom or a soul without 
1 : finding satisfaction in earthly good, knowledge, 
luxury, lust, and -every pleasure. This seems to ex- 
plain and harmonize, while it gives to this book of Ec- 
clesiastes great value. As we have said, it is a beacon on 
one of the most fatal Ledges in all the sea of time, in all 
the voyage of life. The discourse is like the words of 
one who has walked the broad and glittering pathway of 
sin almost all the way to hell, and then returned to tell 
the story. 

This little book is very comprehensive. As Dean 



132 UnNQ QUESTIONS. 

Stanley Bays, u Every speculation and thought of the 

human ln-art is heard ami expressed and recognized in 
turn. . . . No part of the Bible is sadder; though hereand 
there it is lit up with a gleam of brighter hope, yet the 
first prevailing cry is weariness and despair. ' Vanity of 
vanities ; all is vanity. All my labor was vanity and 

vexation of spirit He that increaseth knowledge 

increaseth Borrow, Therefore I hated life, for all is 
vanity.' This," continues the I tean, " is the hitter, ago- 
nized cry of skepticism, and in this sense the most true 
and characteristic utterance of one who has known all 
things, enjoyed all things, been admired by all men. lias 

M through all the littleness and worth&ssness of all 
these things in themselves, and yet not been able to 
grasp that which alone could give them an enduring 
value or compensate for their absence." 

This kingly Preacher, who gave sin and pleasure such 
a fair and splendid trial, not only declares that "all is 
vanity," but rightly bases this despairing cry on athe- 
ism, the true foundation of hopelessness. There is no 
Providence: Fate rules. Nature is supreme, inexorable, 
indifferent to character, blind to justice, and deaf to the 
cry of sorrow. " One event happens to all." " A wise man 
is no more than a fool. Indeed, as it is with a beast, 90 
it is with man. Man has no pre-eminence: one dies as 
the other die-. Justice is a sham, for the jtist perish, 
while the wicked live. As to that, it matters little, for 
just men are extremely rare- yon might perhaps find 
one such in a thousand, hut a just woman cannot be 
found. There is nothing hotter than eating and drink- 
ing and delighting our senses in the good of labor* * 



.1 B0TA1 L33 

It is no1 Btrange tliai after Buch ;i conf< the 

king hated life and turned from it with d 

But there has come to as, since the dark days <>\ this 
ruler, another Preacher-King, who also studied life at 
Jerusalem, though amid the ruins of Solomon's kingdom 
and glory, and who has given us the result of his wider 
knowledge, of his divine and perfed wisdom. And, 
though this King, also in the royal line of David, was 

•n in a stable and died on a cross,— though he was 
poorer than the birds and the foxes, and the only crown he 
wore was a wreath of thorns, — yet his views of life have 
filled the world with hope, with the golden glory of the 
morning— filled the hearts of millions with a glad light 
that never shone on land or sea, in hall or court : a 
light not for vision hut for faith : a light by which the 
pure see ( iod, see the 1 1 real Jehovah as their own dear 
Father— "Abba, Father." 

Through Him who solved this problem of life by re- 
vealing divine care and mercy, by unfolding infinite love 
and eternal redemption, we know these hopeless cries, 
these bitter maledictions and impeachments, of the royal 
Bensualist to be false. 

This life of ours is not the result of chance, of spon- 
taneous generation, nor the vain gift of a careless 
Creator. It is reai, precious, sublime as the thought 
of eternity, with glorious, endless, divine possibilities. 
Still we may, and there are those who do, make life vain 
and empty enough. All who live and sin as Solomon 
did will come to feel and think like him. 

We make our world : we make it a garden or a desert. 



[94 fJVlMi QUESTIONS. 

We make it the threshold of heaven or the ante-room of 

pair. How often have men been like- Solomon in 

Bin and consequent hatred and loathing, without his 

splendor ! They arc caught with a bare hook. Bui the 
rich, the favored, the gifted, the Bona of fame, have 

found the world — their world — so false, hlack. and 
empty that they have pronounced upon it the curse of 
this king : a malediction, however, that is no curse, but, 
instead, from their lips the highest praise, giving the 
Btrongesi assurance that it is neither vain nor godless. 
For, though sensualism leads its victims to atheism, yet 
the terrors of its hell are a perpetual witness for the 
presence and providence of a God of love as well as 
justice. 

No; " One event " does not " happen unto all." The 
Lord reigneth : he is not mocked. TAliatsoever we sow 
we shall reap. There are true souls and grand results : 
there are false men and wretched failures. There have 
been those who, neither rich nor famous, and perhaps 
forgotten now, have yet sowed the continents with seeds 
of truth, and ages witness the golden harvest. 

How sad the words, "The labor that a man doeth 
under the sun is all vanity"! Prince and peasant, the 
wise and the foolish— alike in t heir labor and alike in their 
reward — all go to the same place of eternal forget fulness. 
Sfes, sad, hut false — the mockery of unbelief. For 
faith has a brighter, truer vision. Faith that is in- 
spired by the Gospel, that rests on Christian hope, says : 
u Sour labor is nol in vain." No righteous thought can 
be lost ; no tear can fall unnoticed ; not a clip can be 
given in charity, nor a prayer offered in reverent love, that 



.1 R0TA1 8BNSUAU8T, 136 

is not reoorded and the record preserved in the archives 
ternity. 

All vanity ? "The w<>rk of one true soul is greater 
than all the work or waste oi time, tor that has only 

ming power. Ever] true man is greater, every true 

man shall conquer more than thee : for he shall triumph 
over death and hell and thee, O Time V s 

Yet, when one gives up Qod and spiritual realith 
gives uv love for lust, virtue for sensuality, future good 

[or present satiety, looking only at the material, — then 

no kingly power, or wealth, or greatness can satisfy or 
hless. All will seem vain, and life at the last be dark 
and empty. 

[fl there not occasion for appeal and admonition here 
and now ? After all the experience of the past, and 
the wreck of countless souls that have uttered their 
warning cry from the black rocks of Bin; is it wise for 
you, my young friends, after so long a time, to make 
the rule of the dissolute, the theory of the godless, the 
creed of the epicurean, the law of your life ? 

Is it wise and best, think you, to live for self, for 
instant pleasure ; to let appetite rule, and passion bear 
sway ; to sneer at honesty and piety ; to throw obliga- 
tion to the winds ; to attempt the drowning of reason 
and conscience in the wine cup, or in the sw T ift current 
of dissipation ; to look upon life as a vain 'masquer- 
ade or carnival-time, and the earth a festive hall, 
lighted with its countless lamps for the amusement of a 
night, instead of a temple ? Is this, ye that come 
from homes long consecrated by Christian faith, whose 
fathers and mothers are some of them in heaven because 



136 I.IYLM, QUESTIONS, 

they lived for God, and some still on earth, to lead yon 
thai way, --i> this the path of wisdom, the means by 
which to make the most of life, the mosl of earth ? 

Bui you, perchance more fortunate than others, im- 
agine yon can gain all the sweets of evil and leave un- 
touched, antasted, all its bitterness ; von will be, though 
all before have (ailed, a successful sinner ! Perhaps 
yon aim to be respectable. Sou will avoid the Bewer 

and the hovel. Xou will avoid the shoals and storms, 
gaining with a fair breeze and a skillful pilot the 
haven of the pleasures and rewards of sin. You will win 
the world and cheat the Devil; secure the delights of 
sensualism, yet escape the tortures of remorse and avoid 
the torments of the flesh. 

Ah. what a mistake ! You cannot circumvent the 
Almighty, or defeat the eternal order of God. You can- 
7iot set aside the laws of the universe, that are fixed in the 
changeless grooves of infinite wisdom and power. Shall 
the pillars or the throne of God nod and bend to your 
desires or behest ? 

my brother, look at those who, once higher and 
stronger than you, sowed to the flesh : behold the har- 
vesi ! Yes, look at the devotees of pleasure, whether of 
the hovel or mansion, and then if you will, as you turn 
with disgust from the victims of folly, look at the de- 
voted followers of Christ. See the Christian in old 
age ! Look at your praying mother as she stands on the 
edge of the grave, or your venerable father as he feebly 
walks beneath the "blossoms of the almond-tree/' — 
look, for you may see the opening gate of heaven ! 

(live not thyself to madness and folly. Be that g 



.1 E0TA1 8BN81 AIJ8T. 137 

after pleasure! be he prince or peasant, goetfa as ao 01 
to the Bhambl And lei me >a\ to the presumptuous: 
Solomon, in all his power and glory, oould not satisfj 
himself, could not make sensualism pay, bo thai life was 
not worth living hut became a burden, what possible 
chance is there for you ? [f the great Solomon could not 

reach the goal of SUCOeSfl over the macadamized road of 
royalty in Ins imperial chariot and thousands of battle- 

BCU, with all the marvelous splendor of an Oriental 
monarch, how can you expect to win with your meager 
equipment for the race ? 

This ruler in riches and knowledge exceeded all the 

kings of the earth : his wine-cups were of gold, his 
throne was ivory, his material glory unequaled, his 
power unlimited; lie had ships, and armies, and u seven 
hundred wives:" yet, filled with despair, he says, "I 
hated life." 

Ultimate prosperity and final success are not in the 
line of selfishness and sensualism, but are the legitimate 
fruit of purity, charity, and righteousness. 

Those who have said, " Let us have a good time — 
throw dull care and sober duty to the winds ; let us sur- 
round ourselves with the charm and witchery of beauty ; 
trudges rake the sea and sift the hills to give us gems 
and gold ; let the genius of dissipation unseal every 
fountain of earth's delight and give us floods of pleas- 
ure/' — all such soon find life a burden, and cry out in 
despair, "Vanity of vanities; all is vanity. He that 
seeks to save his life shall lose it/' 

How different with those who gladly bear the cross of 
Christ to uplift the fallen and console the sad ; to open 



136 ■ LIVXNQ QUESTIONS. 

prison door- and save the losl ! Those who, forgetful of 
self, arc constrained by love, find life a perpetual source 
of peace and triumph. How rich, how priceless their 

heritage! how complete their success! — for they arc 
" more than conquerors/' more than kings. 

It would seem as if Solomon came to himself at last; 
that he saw again the claims and relations of earthly be- 
ing, and died at home in the faith of his fathers. There 

ifi a wide difference between the beginning and the close 
of this famous senium of his. 'render, paternal, and 

solemn are his final admonitions, his wise counsels, to 
the young. Then, in more than royal authority, he- 
presents the simplicity of all obligation, the paramount 
duties and far-reaching interests of life, in these im- 
pressive words : " Let us hear the conclusion of the 
whole matter : PeaT God, and keep his commandments; 
for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring 
every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, 
whether it be good or whether it be evil/' 



\ III. 

OUB RE L80NABLE SERVICE. 

Prayi r. 

Pray without ceasing."— 1 Thm.v. 17. 
"And what profit ahould we haw, if we pray V" — Tob \\i. 15. 

In this discourse we propose to notice some of the 
objections that arc urged against the privilege and duty 
of prayer. 

We should remember, however, that faith in prayer is 
no more dependenl on the tacts of science, or on the 
subtilities of logic, than is the child's confidence in its 
mother dependent on thought or reason. Both the faith 
of the suppliant ami the confidence of the child are pri- 
marily the result of our nature and it- necessities; and as 
there is a maternal heart to answer the cry of the child, 
BO there is a Divine Being of infinite love who hears us 
when we pray. Suppose we cannot demonstrate that 
prayer is a force in the universe? This no more dis- 
proves its validity than our inability to explain many of 
the blessings and realities of life disproves their exist- 
ence, and forbids us to use and enjoy them. Yet, while 
prayer is not dependent on our reason, still we should 
feel assured that it is reasonable; for with no divided 
heart or mind can we come before God in this holy c.x- 
ercie 

139 



140 iJYiyc; QUESTIONS 

Hut is prayer a means of good; is ii a condition of 
blessings, the direcl antecedent of any favor? Or must 
we also echo the despairing question, "What profit 
shall we have if we pray?" 

The first answer, and one that every reverent heart 
will regard as adequate, must be the belief, the assur- 
ance, that there is a God — an Eternal Being who is the 
[nfinite "Conservator of the universe, whose omnipo- 
tence is the force, whoso reason is the law, whose omni- 
presence is the life of all nature." Now if the assertion 
of u the Tool " is true, and there is no such being, then 
the question of prayer is forever decided negatively. But 
if there is a God, such as creation implies, such as the 
Bible reveals, such as our nature craves, our faith con- 
ceives, and our love demands — a God who is "Our 
Father," — then prayer is reasonable, and every true 
prayer is, or may he, a positive force for good; then 
"The Eternal Will, the axis of creation, bows and dips 
to human entreaty." 

But we are told with a tinge of dogmatism that this is 
impossible — impossible in the very nature of things; 
hence our hopes are fallacious, our conclusions absurd. 
It is admitted thai prayer may be right and needful as a 
support and comfort because of its effect upon our own 
hearts, but it can have no influence beyond ourselves. 
If this is true, then it is an insult to reason. It cannot 
he helpful, unless a lie is helpful. How can we derive 
comfort by doing thai which we know is useless? For 
it is essential in coming u to Qod, to believe that lie is, 
and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him." It is 

essential to prayer for us to believe thatOod isacoessi- 



Oil: REASONABLE SERVICE 111 

le will hear our cries, bj mpal bize with lis in 
our sorrows, and be moved to answer our petitions. 
Without this it is a pious fraud, the pretense of faith, 
nulation of devotion, the reneering of hypooi 
ii the cant of piety. 

Hut lei us h».»k at the objections urged againsl this 
doctrine — the doctrine of prayer as ii is presented in 
the Scriptures, and as it is presented in that elder and 

later revelation that is written by the Creator upon the 

human heart. 

Numberless supposed fatal objections, based on our 
knowledge of the nature of things, have again and again 
been urged against prayer. Yet knowledge has changed, 

the objections have vanished, and men continue to cvy 

to God for help, 

" Our little systems have their day ; 

They have their clay and cease to bo : 
The} 7 are but broken lights of thee ; 
And thou, O Lord, art more than they." 

Now again, as if altogether new, the idea is loudly 
proclaimed from the high places of the earth that the 
doctrine of prayer for which we plead is false because it 
collides with the verities of the material world, or with 
the established principles of science. While unbelief is 
ever ready with its objections, just now its most sweep- 
ing denial is based on the well-known principle of con- 
tinuity, or, in other words, the uniformity of nature. 
k - This continuity or regularity of nature is the first pos- 
tulate of science — a supreme postulate without which 
scientific knowledge is impossible." 



142 LIVING QUESTIONS 

There is do doubl regarding this principle; indeed, 
it is a truth thai no one thinks of denying or debating. 
All are glad to believe thai nature is orderly, reliable; 

all admit that the reign of law is universal —or, to the 

devout mind, universal is tin dominion of God. There 
arc no raveled edges, no border-lands of confusion and 

misrule, no neutral -paces or untamed realms in all his 
universe. There is no vagrancy or riot in the material 

world, but cause and effect, antecedent and consequent, 
moveon forever in " unbroken phenomenal order, or in- 
variable phenomena] sequence.' 1 The most devout and 
prayerful do not question the truth of universal law, or 
doubt the postulate of universal order; for the marshal- 
ing and adjustment of atoms and worlds, the infinite 
regularity and beauty of all things declare to us the 
wisdom and power of (iod. 

Yet, strangely enough, this uniformity of nature lias 
been so interpreted as to offer the strongest objection to 
our trust in prayer and in divine Providence — the most 
alarming to many pious hearts that has yet been pre- 
sented. This is the present Gibraltar of doubt. Here 
it has of late intrenched itself. 

Dr. Tyndall Beems to be, or is put forward as, the 
champion. In denying the efficacy of prayer he says: 
"The idea of direct personal volition mixing itself 
in the economy of nature is retreating more and more. 
. . . Nature is absolutely uniform: hence, to produce 
changes in external nature in answer to prayer would be 
a violation of its order, a manifest contradiction to na- 
ture's laws, or it would be a miracle." 

Clearly, then, this objection to prayer as a means of 



R RBA80NABLE 8EBVK 1 IS 

good is simply the u solute uniformity of oatur 
er musl be idle or absent, because oatun 
uniform! Tl i tor pi "unbroken causal con- 

ition " and whai he rails " the tic inception " 

in direct opposition. That is, he places belief in oni- 

ride, and faith in God as accessible and 

exorable on the other; and then claims that reason must 

l an easy \ oyer our Eaith in prayer and pn 

dence — a rictory always in tavor of this "unbroken 
causal connection M thai Becures the order and stability of 
the w<»rld. Bui this is an empty conquest It has been 

I said, "Thevictory is impossible, because the rivalry 
is unreal. " There is no such opposition. Faith and 
reason arc no1 at war. And the Creator is not — can 
be — opposed to his own perfect creation. 

Thank God, our Eaith does not reach up to worship 
an Almighty Anarch, or to adore Disorder and Confusion 
enthroned on high! It does not reach up in reverence 
to grasp a hand that is set against the beauty and splen- 
dor of nature; but instead a hand that, holding all the 
tangled mysteries of time, weaves them into a garment 
of glory; a hand that, holding all the issues of life, directs 
them in infinite wisdom, so that the absolute order, the 
perfect unity and ceaseless harmony of the universe, are 
a perpetual hymn of praise to our Father — who is Cod 
over all, blessed forever. 

We fully admit the Doctor's premises in regard to 
order, but we deny his conclusions. The regularity of 
nature cannot imply the absence of intelligent power, 
the absence of " direct personal volition ;" but must in- 
stead prove the presence of the Almighty, prove by the 



144 LIVING QUESTIONS 

strongest evidence that direct, divine volition dors u mix 
If in the economy of nature." For nature can neither 
ate nor Bnstain itself, but is forever the expression of 

the Divine Will thai is, in truth, the fountain of all 
force, the beginning and source of all power. The u laws 
of nature" are the modes of activity of the will of God. 

Suppose we find a junihle, a disorganized mass, devoid 
of all harmony, interaction, and adjustment: should 
we look upon it as indicative of a wise, personal presence 
and direct volition ? Certainly not. On the other 
hand, when we find order, utility, and beauty in arrange- 
ment and const-ruction, we necessarily regard it as the 
result of mind — not as the result of nature, but of in- 
telligent, personal design. This conclusion is irresist- 
ible. 

Now there is in nature no jumble, but universal regu- 
larity and utility. Shall we then, because the marvels of 
nature are beyond the pow T er of the human hand and the 
finite mind, conclude that it is mindless — without in- 
telligent direction? Does then infinite power indicate 
weakness; infinite wisdom the absence of thought? Is 
it true that when this absolute order is so great, wide, 
and high as to require boundless space for its exhibition 
and divine mind for its comprehension — is it true that 
this perfection, so worthy of God, reveals to us the ab- 
sence of personal action, the absence of divine volition? 

A small engine requires an engineer. A small chro- 
nometer must be wound up. Small affairs and trifling 
adjustments must receive direction and care. In these 
relations even "unbroken causal connection " needs a 
jog now and then, needs our personal attention, or the 



OUR ERA80NABLR 8BRVK 1 15 

ark we have pal into its hand will no! be done; \'*>v 
without mind even tin* laws and forces of naturej afl fchey 

r\ us, will Tail t<> perform their task. 

Hut is there virtue in bigness; wisdom and energy 
in mere bulk? Would an engine of perfect symmetry, 

with driving-wheelfl as large as the BUB and a tender aa 

lar^e as Charles's Wain, he any more >el f-d i reet ini;, Belf- 
BUStainingj than the smallest one ever made? 

My watch reveals a maker finite skill: doea the dial- 
plate of heaven, that faultless horometer, heeau>e of its 
infinity and perfection prove the absence of mind- in- 
finite mind? Is it not worthy of God? 

We seem to be dazed, confused, by the vastness and 
completeness of nature, and especially because the hand 
that guides is invisible, cannot be recognized by science. 
And because it is only "by faith we understand that 
what is seen hath not been made out of things which do 
appear, but by the word of God," we are tempted to 
conclude that this frame of nature is without mind — 
without direct personal oversight. 

But could we see the universe, or even our world, so 
as to grasp it as a whole — see it with all its exquisite 
adjustments and skill ; its marvels of thought, fore- 
thought, and arrangement ; its combinations of matter 
and force, from the most simple to the most recondite ; 
from first principles to illustrations of the highest math- 
ematical knowledge, involving the most abstruse prob- 
lems; its countless relations, depending upon the most 
exact comprehension of all material things, so that if 
you report and copy nature you have a perfect text- 
book of universal physical science; — could we see all 



146 LIVING QUESTIONS. 

this, bo complete in every plan and prevision, its unity 
perfect as a dewdrop, its harmony without a jar, on 
every side "unbroken causal connection," and all pre- 
sented in one comprehensive view, — there would not, 
could not be a human being this side the blackness and 

chaofl of idiocy and madness who would not at on 

necessarily, feel ami know "the presence of a direct, 

personal volition, mixing itself in the economy of na- 
ture." — all the doctors in the world to the contrary 
notwithstanding. 

We full) admit the fact of the perfect order, the ab- 
Bolute uniformity or regularity, of nature. For it seems 
to me a mistake is made by some of the able advocates 
of prayer in attempting to deny Dr. Tyndall's position 
or premise. They claim as a possibility that nature 
has been, or can be. interfered with. Says Dr. Cocker: 
'•What ground have we for the assumption that the 
order of nature is so absolutely persistent and chan. 
less that it never has been and never can be interfered 
with by an act of intelligent volition? . . . There is no 
authority for the assertion that the course of nature or 
the procession of phenomena must be absolutely uni- 
form. "* 

But what is the order of nature, except acts of intelli- 
gent volition? As law implies an agent, an executive. 



* " The Theistic Conception of the World," by B. P. Cocker, 

D. I).. LL.D. (pp. 822, 827). This is a work of gnat ability and 

power. It Beems to me the author is unjust to himself in a few 

passages, for, in his complete view, he rejects the mechanical 

ry and presents forcibly and eloquently the doctrine of the 

:ne immanence in nature. 



/; RBA80NAB1 11? 

so the order of nature implies the action, the volitioi 
this order, this perfect regular 

bial to matter, bul declares the presence of Him 
who contains the un'w Bu1 aside from this, the 

quotation just made is qo doubl false in Bcience, and al- 

rether unsatisfactory in religion. It is like grasping 
the blade, while the for holds the Bword bythe hilt. It 
is no! enough to know, or conjecture, that there is a bare 
possibility that God can act in our behalf; bul ire need 
strong, uplifting assurance, inspired by Him who said 

with authority, "Ask, and it shall be given you; 
knock, and it shall be opened unto yon; seek, and ye 
shall find." And as Jesus presents it, how plain and 
reasonable the philosophy of prayer! u U ye then, being 
evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, 
how much more shall your Father which IS in heaven 

give good things to them that ask him !" 

If you can hear your children's prayers, and often 
answer their requests, even using the order of nature to 
express your love ; if you as a force, a self-determining, 
self-originating power, (because created in God's image,) 
can make the material and spiritual worlds serve them, 
ae is often plainly possible, — shall not the Almighty 
Father hear and answer his children when they cry 
unto him? 

The pious will derive but little help or hope from the 
sibility that God may interfere with the order of na- 
ture, or interrupt causation in their behalf. If answers 
to ourcries to Heaven depend on something unusual and 
extraordinary, rare and exceptional, our faith must 
falter and our lips be struck dumb. Who would not 



148 UVZNQ QUESTIONS, 

shrink from making bo much trouble? And who would 
Dot dread to ask God to i€ interfere with n or " contra- 
dict natural laws"? But I beg of you not to throw 
away your Bible, nor your text-bookfi of science, but to 

rejoice that nature is reliable, loyal, exact, and that its 
laws and relations are never empirical, but always scien- 
tific, revealing absolute knowledge, infinite comprehen- 
sion, and eternal goodness. 

The idea that the presence and action of Almighty 
mind in nature implies u interference," "contradiction," 
the disruption of any wise law or relation, seems like an 
impossible thought; for that a perfect mind should act 
in perfect order and in perfect harmony with, by, and 
through a perfect system, whether it be of nature or of 
grace — certainly this needs, admits of, no proof, for it is 
a truism to every reverent mind. 

Because nature is absolutely uniform Dr. Tvndall 
concludes that God cannot answer our prayers — at least 
for any material blessing ; for if he should exercise per- 
sonal volition there must be contradiction, disorder, 
miraclel Is there not here a tinge of superstition? We 
know that children and savages always connect seeming 
confusion and unrestrained power with the presence of 
(iod, with his direct action. That which to them seems a 
derangement of the order of nature if loud and destruc- 
tive enough, proves to the untutored mind that God is 
near. Hut is he not in the " still small voice" as well 
as in earthquake, fire, and cyclone? The wisely rever- 
ent mind sees God not alone in frowning powe., but in 
the sweet and gentle; beholding his personal will in 
every form of beauty and in all the marshaled order of 



OUR BBABONABLB SERVICE L49 

atoms and of worlds. HOW Strange lliat profe880r8 Ot 

UlOe should thus reason ! 

Aj God in creation and providence, because of infi- 
nite wisdom, must -elect the best — the hest material, the 
hest means, the hest end ; as he cannot he imperfect in 
plan or law — we should not expect a changing, empiri- 
cal system, or any interference with the order of the 

universe ! 

When it is said, however, that this order shuts out 

mind, forbids the exercise of personal volition, — whether 

human or Divine, — then we stoutly object, for we know 
that at least in part it is not true. Divine volition op- 
posed to the order of nature | God opposed to his own 
wisdom and action ! Life at war with the body it ani- 
mates ! Why, this perfect order, this unbroken causa- 
tion, furnish the only ground or condition by which 
mind can and does act through nature to gain the end 
it has in view. 

If creation were a jumble, man would indeed be pow- 
erless as inventor, machinist, artist, and architect ; as 
farmer, gardener, sailor, horseman, and shepherd. But 
with everything so reliable what can he not accomplish? 
On the coast yonder he makes the moon grind his corn, 
though in doing this she never falters in her orbit. Of 
the tidal wave that rolls around the globe he catches a 
little as it swells along the shore, and pours it back at 
his leisure over the tinv wheel of his tide-mill. He can 
hitch his wagon to the sun. He makes the winds his 
coursers as he drives them in tandem across the seas. 

See how man has changed the face of the world. We 
are told it is folly for us " to pray for rain or fair 



150 UVING QUESTIONS. 

weather," because the laws of nature arc "so persistent 

that they never have heen. and never can he, interfered 

with." of course, ae we have repeatedly said, there can 
be no interference in. the Bense of breaking or setting aside 

a law of nature. Who can do thi8? Who wants to do it? 
If we should make the attempt it might be fatal — not to 
the law hut to the interfere! 1 , while nature would move on 
stately as ever. And if. when we pray for rain, there is 

do other way forGod to answer us, except by contradict- 
ing the order of nature, then we devoutly hope no BUCh 
prayer will he offered — above all, answered; for, as Dr. 
Tyndall suggests, the result might be disastrous beyond 
our conception. 

Hut what folly is such a supposition and limitation! 
No one can tell us how any natural phenomena are pro- 
duced. No one can tell how mind acts upon matter. No 
one can tell how God sustains and guides the world. 
u He sendeth rain upon the just and the unjust." 

" But can any understand the spread in its of the clouds, 
The thundering of hid pavilion '.'" 

11 Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds. 

The wondrous works of Him which is perfect in knowledge?" 

These questions are as old as human thought, and still 
unanswered. When we can comprehend the Almighty 

and advise the Infinite, then we may he prepared to tell 
all about what prayers God can answer and how he can 
answer them. But most precious of all — beyond all 
other knowledge — is the assurance thai God is love, that 
his providence is perfect, that he is not far from even- 
one of US, 



B UXA80NABLB SBBVIi L61 

how man, even with his imperfect understanding 
of its laws, changes nature, thus realty accomplishing 

the supernatural. Hv inventive genius Ik mult i plies hifl 
natural powers so as to produce the miracles that till the 

modern world with wonder. He ontflies the eagle, nut- 
dives the dolphin, outruns the horse — the wind: he 
makes the lightnings his messengers, while his speech is 
heard far beyond the loudest crash of the thunder: he 
girdles the earth, bridges the sea. and weighs the sun. 

Whether prayers for rain are answered or not. man 
himself has changed the rainfall of wide realms and 
dried up rivers. He has turned the wilderness into a 
garden, and lands like. Eden into deserts. Like an 
angel or a demon lie has scattered about him flowers or 
desolation. 

Thus has man, in the divine image by the gift of free 
volition, produced the super-natural and the infra-nat- 
ural — not by contradiction but by coincidence with the 
order of nature ; by finding and using — not abusing — 
u the law of unbroken causation. " Is the use of steam, 
of electricity, of the sunshine, of winds and waves and 
sounds, the violation of any law ? Yet when I look at 
the speeding locomotive, at the graceful ship, at the ma- 
jestic ocean steamer, at the face of a friend caught in 
an instant on the point of a sunbeam, I see "personal 
volition mixing itself with nature," using its absolute 
order to produce the supernatural — to produce effects 
above nature, effects of nature plus mind. I see na- 
ture's regularity plus finite mind. Suppose instead of 
these little views we could see this beautiful, boundless 
nature plus infinite mind ! We should have before us 



162 



LIYIMi QUESTIONS. 



the universe as it is: the miracle of creation filled with 
the influx of the One living, loving, working God and 

Father of us all, "who is before all things, ami in 
whom all things consist: for all things are of God; and 

in him we live, and move, and have our being." 

No wonder men object to Divine Providence, if God 
can exercise his will only by capricious action, or only 
by a raid into the harmonies of nature. But instead of 
such an absurdity, we see in the constancy of nature a 
witness of the wisdom and presence of our Almighty 
Preserver. For it is a fundamental truth, that law — 
law per 86 — has no power: hence it is a conviction of rea- 
son, an assurance of thoughtful piety, that the "laws" 
of the material world u are but names for our observa- 
tions of the regularity and order with which God gov- 
erns, lie is in them, behind them, and is all the force 
they have." 

Yet Materialism — the bane of religion, the advocate 
of death, the prophet of despair — with a sneer at hope 
and faith puts the scepter of universal authority into 
the dead hand of Matter as supreme executive in a god- 
less world! Here, in fact, is the ground of disbelief in 
prayer. It is not this or that difficulty, but the theory 
— as Carlyle defines it — of "an absentee God, sitting 
idle, ever since the first Sabbath, at the outside of his 
universe, and seeing it go." It is this that makes faith 
in prayer absurd. Not so much denying that God was: 
but it is the revelation at the Burning Bush, the I AM 
i hat I am, which is rejected ; it is the precious reve- 
lation, Jehovah-jireh of the mountain-top, that is 
BCOmed; it is the sublime announcement, " He is not 



01 i: nSASOlTABl 8 8SBVI( 153 

far from every one of as, and will judge the world in 
ghteousness," lifting Mare' Hill into eternal light us a 

landmark of the agea — it is this which still excites the 

old philosophic mockery. 

For modern materialism, with all its veneering, is the 

old atheistic dream or nightmare of an independent, 
•ntially mechanical Bystem of the universe, without 

purpose, design, or beneficence. But in this theory 

the law <>f "unbroken causation" must be rejected, for 

here both hope and fruition depend on spontaneity. A 

spontaneous world, organization, and order — spontane- 
ous generation — everything fortuitous ! 
Of course, if nature is thus independent, prayer is 

useless : not, however, because of its absolute regularity; 
for this we must expect under the rule and in the pres- 
ence of a prayer-hearing God. The cosmos was the 
echo of his footfall over chaos. 

Plainly, it is not because of the " order of nature," 
not because of "unbroken causation," that prayer is 
without avail. Xo fatal objection — no objection at all 
against it can be found in any truth or principle of 
science. Such objection can be found only in this 
black dream of atheism. Xot because the universe is 
well ordered — every atom and star in its place forever — 
need we doubt or falter; but if there is no wise order, 
no design, no ultimate purpose, but instead the reign 
of fate, the sway of the causeless and spontaneous — 
then we may indeed cry in ©ur despair, " What profit 
shall we have if we pray ?" 

It is not, then, by the exercise of arbitrary pow r er, or 
by any means exceptional or disorderly, that we are to 



164 uviya QUESTIONS. 

hope in the providence of God. We believe in prayer. 

We arc sure countless blessings crown us because of our 
supplications. Prayer is more potential than the elo- 
qnence of statesmen or the decision- of senate.-: might- 
ier than armies, more redolent of hope for the world 
than all the plans of reformers, theschemesof socialists, 
and inquiries of scientists. The world is preserved in 
mercy by prayer. And yet by the Mighty Father, the 
Gracious Rewarder, no order is deranged, do harmony 
made discordant, no principle is unsettled, no law an- 
nulled: the poise of nature is perfect, its unity com- 
plete, its rhythm without a jar: while these answers 
from above are no less direct and personal, no less an 
expression of the Divine Will, no less an assurance of 
paternal love, than if they had been brought about by 
the most arbitrary means, by disruptions and convul- 
sions of nature. 

As an aid — or as a parable that may enable us to real- 
ize the presence, the immanence, of God in all things — 
I will quote what Balfour Stewart says of life : e€ Let 
us suppose a war is being carried on by a vast army, at 
the head of which there is a very great general. . . . 
He is never seen by any of his subordinates, but remains 
at work in a well-guarded room, from which telegraphic 
wires lead to the headquarters of the various divisions. 
Thus he sends his orders and receives information 
from his otlicers. His room becomes a center into 
which this information is poured and from which his 
Commands are issued. 

" Now that mysterious thing called life, about which 
we know so little, is probably not unlike such a com- 



OKB REASONABLE SERVICE, L56 

mander. Life is no! a bully, who swaggers oul into the 

!i universe, upsetting the laws of energy in all din 
tions, hut rather a consummate strategist, who, sitting 
in his secret chamber, before his wires, directs I be move- 
ments of a greal army. ,J 

This may help us in our conception of God as con- 
trolling and guiding all things. II<' is indeed the Life 

Of all. So dose, intimate, and universal are his rela- 
tions, that it may he said of every form of vitality, from 
the monad to the nation. "I am the vine, ye are the 
branches/ 3 There is do force, no energy in matter: 

matter is dead, inert: force belongs alone to mind or 
spirit : while the Internal Spirit is the primal source of 
all power, the fountain of all life: proclaiming to us from 
every flaming and flowering hush, every beaming eve, 
active hand, and heating heart, a present God — the I 

AM THAT I AM. 

It seems to me there is nothing more precious, or 
more essential to vital piety, than the doctrine of the 
personal love, care, and sympathy of our Heavenly Father 

clearly taught in the Gospel. And this reminds me 
that we must guard sometimes against our friends as 
well as our foes. There are forms of skepticism BO in- 
sidiousthat oven the elect may he deceived. And there 
may he a defense of prayer that the unbeliever cannot 
answer — that strikes him dumb, hut 'that also leaves 
the earnest suppliant speechless, or at least without that 
unction that makes our prayers real and acceptable 
petitions. 

So anxious are some of our religious teachers to meet 
the imagined difficulties of science — to harmonize ma- 



L66 LIVING QUB8TI0N& 

teria] order with divine Providence, to include theoloj 

in the u Connection of the Physical Sciences 95 — that they 
have adopted the mechanical theory of the aniveree; 
only going a step back of materialism, making mind or 
spirit, instead of matter, the first or self-existent can 
It would seem impossible that pious men. with the Bible 
before them, could be led to look upon the order of the 
world as so independent of the Divine Will that there 
can be no direct action, no personal providence, on 
the part of our Heavenly Father, without some kind 
of " contradiction 9 ' or collision with this order — some 
Btartling interference with this harmony. It would 
Beem impossible that great religious teachers should 
nrge us to believe that the perfect and continued order 
of the world depends on the absence and the inaction 
of God. 

Yet, to maintain the hope of divine help, and at the 
same time to preserve this order of nature and, above all, 
their theological system, some of our ablest teachers 
tell us that at the first, in the beginning, perfect pro- 
vision was made for all possible contingencies — all possi- 
ble demands and needs of providence, judgment, miracle, 
and prayer — as they should arise in future ages. God in 
the councils of eternity by his decrees so arranged that 
the perfect machinery of the universe would of itself 
work out all the answers to the prayers of his children, 
and bring about all the gracious means for their re- 
demption. Sere there can be no clash, no law can be 
broken or contradicted, for the prayer and the reply 
are both included in the very order that forms*' that 

principle of continuity which is the first postulate of 



OUR RBA80NABLE 8ERVK E 167 

And ro j M'j-ft •■ -t . -<> fixed, is this 
mechanism that, even Bhould God vacate his throne, 
still the universe might roll on, evolving every meane 
graoe and Eaithf ally answering every prayer of faith. At 
least, all divine blessings, ever] judgment, mercy, and 
miracle, are the result of an eternal prearrangement, and 
cannol express to us the immediate presence and voli- 
tion of God. 

While I might quote from several advocates of this 
theory to show its high authority, I will mention hut 
one or two. Dr. Buchanan, successor to Dr. Chalmers, 
Bays : " It is this solution that has obtained the sanction 
of some of the highest names in science and theology/' 
Be then with approbation quotes from ESuler: "Phi- 
losophy instructs US that all events take place in strict 
conformity to the course of nature, established from the 
beginning, and that our prayers can effect no change 
whatever, unless we pretend to expect that (iod should 
be continually working miracles in compliance with our 
prayers. . . . But I remark that, when God estab- 
lished the course of the universe and arranged all the 
events that must come to pass in it, he paid attention 
to all the circumstances which should accompany each 
event, and particularly to the dispositions, desires, and 
prayers of every intelligent being ; and that the arrange- 
ment of ail events was disposed in perfect harmony with 
all these circumstances. When, therefore, a man ad- 
dresses to God a prayer worthy to be heard, that prayer 
was already heard from all eternity, and the Father of 
mercies arranged the world expressly in favor of that 
prayer, so that the accomplishment should be a conse- 



L5S UVUSTQ QUESTIONS. 

quenoe of the natural coarse of events. It is thus that 
God answers the prayers of men without a miracle." 

And Dr. ftfcCosh says: "God dors not require to in- 
terfere with his own arrangements, for there is an an- 
swer to prayer provided in the arrangement made by 
him from all eternity. . . . When the question is asked. 
How does* God answer prayer? we reply, It is by a 
preordained appointment, when God settled the con- 
stitution of the world, and set all its parts in order." 

S.» I suppose, when we seek to commune with our 
Father, yearning for his comfort and his love, this 
communion and sympathy also must be from all eternity. 

How pernicious the ancient heresy that limited and 
localized the Holy One, placing him far off in space 
and time ! And yet how many, could they fully realize 
the truth of Paul's. words to-day, — "He is not far from 
everyone of us," — would exclaim in surprise, "Surely 
the Lord LS in this place, and I knew it not !" And our 
splendid churches will not be "the house of God and 
the gate of heaven" until their worshipers feel ami 
know the immediate presence of the God of Jacob — the 
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

To me such a theory seems hard, heartless. Our 
petitions musi he without unction and the soul without 
love when we thus look upon the world as a great mill 
and God as an eternal millwright, giving us the product 
of our prayers by the gearing of natural forces that were 
arranged and pui in motion at the beginning, or from 
all eternity. 

This theory cannot meet our wants, cannot supply 
that large place in the heart that God made for himself. 



Oil: REASONABLE BEBVIi 159 

This view meets only the exigenciee of a system of theol- 

, while the bou! bangers tor the assurance thai our 

Heavenly Father cares tor as, and comforts, u even as a 

mother oomfortfl her child." And when we ask for this 

bread of life, will they give as a machine? 
How different when we open the Bible! The Psalmist, 

Bfl expressing universal desire, exclaims, " My BOUl 
thirsteth, my heart erieth out, for the Living God." The 

apostle oi the Lord JesUS declares, " We are the chil- 
dren f the Living God. We trust him. We have come 
unto the city of the Living God." It is true Be was in 
the beginning, but He is still our refuge— "a very pres- 
ent help m every time of trouble." " I will fear no evil, 
for thou art with me/' is the heritage of every child of 
l_not because everything was once arranged, but 
because " the Lord is our Shepherd," forever guarding 
and leading his flock. 

When I pray, it cannot be to reach back into a past 
eternity and petition a God who was exorable then, who 
could hear and answer then, but now is bound— like an 
architect who, while the building is in progress, may 
make changes, may listen to prayers, and interfere with 
what is partially done, but when the structure is com- 
pleted cannot alter its plan or appointments. St. Paul 
declares " the word of God is bound by no chains ;" 
while the Saviour teaches that we have complete access 
to the Father, who can open the windows of heaven 
and flood us with favors— open his heart and pour upon 
us his mercy. Jesus does not tell us of a God whose 
theologic love was prepared in a past eternity, but whose 
tender appeal comes to us now, saying, " Behold, I stand 



160 LIVING QUESTIONS. 

at tin* <lo<>i\ and knock : if any man hear my voice, and 
open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with 
him, and ho with me." 

Our teachers, whether of religion or of science, who 
advocate this mechanical theory, arc agreed in rejecting 
tin 1 idea of direct divine volition in the world because 
of the absolute uniformity and changeless laws of nature ; 
and hence either utterly deny the efficacy of prayer, or 
provide our petitions with answers from all eternity. 

If this theory is true, we have at host a God distant — 
an absentee Ruler and Father, who cannot now bless, 
rebuke, or redeem without contradicting established 
order. But we reject this materialism, however labeled 
or advocated, as false — utterly, totally false; and we 
cling to the Gospel, that is such glad tidings, because it 
assures us of an ever-present, living, loving God and 
Father, by whose power and wisdom the universe is now 
sustained, vivified ; whose personal will and presence 
are forever revealed in the order and beauty of Creation. 

This may appear dogmatic, but we are sure the phi- 
losophy of the Gospel not only satisfies the heart, but 
alone contents the reverent mind. Christianity as a 
Bystem of truth has its difficulties and mysteries to our 
finite minds, but, thank God! it presents no absurdities. 

And where will you find fewer difficulties? For in- 
stance, the law of gravitation, on which the entire har- 
mony Of the material universe depends, cannot be a 
product nor an essential property of matter. We know 
it is an expression of mind, for we have lately come to 
know that this law involves a mathematical, an intel- 
lectual, combination, the discovering and analyzing of 



OUR REA80NAB1 i L61 

which :«h'il as '• tin- -ivai^ entlfic 'TV 

vwy made," and made bj entific j 

that ever lived. Who enacted, who executes, this sub- 
lime law? li is literally true, that QOl B BparrOW I' 
without the Father. 

Now the greal truth implied or expressed in all we 
have Baid a truth that gives hope, that Bhines like the 
sun ; a truth that makes the | >f the dear old Bible 

glow as with the smile of God, and to which reason b< 
in reverence; a truth suggesting no contradiction oi 
nature, no disorder, >ct assuring us of a persona] provi- 
der tlu' precious Gospel doctrine of the eternal 
presence of the Living God in all thin/-. For all 
things derive existence and iife to-day, as at the first, 
from the ceaseless outgoing of his virtue and Spirit, so 
that we Bee perpetual tokens of this divine immanence, 
though we cannot behold the divine essence. Nature 

is but 

An emanation of tin 1 indwelling Life, 
A visible token of the upholding Love, 

That is the soul of this wide universe." 

"My Father worketh even until now, and I work," 
said Jesus, presenting a truth in harmony with all Scrip- 
ture concerning the relation of God to the world ; show- 
ing that his action is no interference with the har- 
monies of nature, hut that the order we behold ifl the 
method of his working. Every rising and setting sun 
proclaims his omnipotence as truly as when "God said. 
Let there }»> light : ami there was light. " 

How strange thai men seek to pervert these witn 
so as to make them testify falsely : seek to Buborn these 



162 LIVIXG QUESTIONS 

embodiments of truth — to corrupt lips that cannot lie ! 
The very stars in their harmonious courses, and because 
of their harmony, being summoned to testily, "to fight 
against " their Creator : bo that the plainest possible evi- 
dence that can be given of his will and working is 
made to prove his absence — made to prove a divine 
alibi! 

But they refuse to be perjure*]. "The earth is full 
of the loving-kindness of the Lord ; the heavens still de- 
clare his glory ; while day unto day uttereth speech and 
night unto night showeth knowledge." 

AVe believe in prayer as a means of grace, not because 
of the discoveries and truths of science, not because of 
the deductions of logic, not because we can see so clearly 
or can prove BO much; for the wisest see through a glass, 
darkly, while all are weak indeed who are strong only by 
might of mind and power of knowledge : but we believe 
in prayer because we believe in God, the Father Al- 
mighty. And we are thankful that what the Bible says 
of prayer we can see and feel to be reasonable — to be in 
harmony with the works of God: with the grandeur of 
the mountain and the golden splendor of the night, with 
the abundance of the autumn and the mysteries of the 
spring-time ; with every law, and with universal order : 
in perfect harmony with our deepest wants, our highest 
hopes, our truest, noblest life. 

We are thankful that reverent reason, together with 
all the light of human knowledge, may serve to guide us 
to the mercy-scat and point us to the Lamb of God. 



IX. 
A Divine Vooattoh pob Evert Man. 

"To this cud was I horn, and for this cause came I into the 

Id, that 1 should bear witness unto the truth."— John xviii. 

It was thug Christ spoke of himself as he stood before 
Pilate, — not, however, speaking of himself as an official, 

but as a man: simply as a true, divinely commissioned 
man. Hence our aim is to show that these words ex- 
press a universal truth and admit of a common appli- 
cation. This language is not only true of Jesus, but 
of all. Of every one it may be said, in view of some 
definite, some worthy purpose, some divine plan, "To 
this end he w T as born." We claim that in view of some 
special vocation it may be declared of every child, 
whether prince or peasant, whether born in a palace or 
a stable, " To this end — for this cause — it comes into 
the world." 

There is not only work for all, but a divinely ap- 
pointed task for every one. The motto of the careful 
housekeeper, " A place for everything, and everything 
in its place," is the rule of the universe. In the mate- 
rial world, that is a parable of God, nothing is acciden- 
tal or chaotic, but every atom and world rolls in the deep 
grooves of a wise design. The curve of the comet's 

orbit and the position of each grain of sand, the swell 

163 



164 livixi; QUESTIONS, 

of tin 1 ocean wave and the glitter of the dewdrop, arc 
alike the result of divine wisdom and power. All 
things are included in the laws and relations of nature. 

The opening of a violet, the germination of a >rv(\. are 

much a part of the plan of the nniverse as are u the 

splendid diagrams and the sublime mathematics of the 

S every man has a divinely-appointed mission — an 
end to gain, a work to do, a place to fill : not the greal 
alone. Imt the humblest; while usefulness and happiness 
depend on fidelity to our calling. For each life must 
have to God a definite purpose ; for thai we are created, 

to that we are called. 

There is no doubt of the truth of this doctrine in its 
application to Jesus. His mission was Foreordained; 
his work and coming were plainly foretold. Be was the 
result of ages of preparation, the culmination of a perfect 
plan, the end of a Bublime, loving providence. 

We have b.-cn taught to regard this case as exceptional; 
to look upon Jesus as mainly an official, a hierarch. But 
it seems to me that his high office is fulfilled in being a 
representative man— a true "Son of man; 5 ' so that 
what is true of him is also true of every true man, true 
of every bou] that is submissive to the Divine Will, He 
was born to a certain end. came to do a definite work; 
for this he was guided by (he Almighty; while his 
glory, joy, and perfection were in filling the place and 
doin-- the work assigned him, so that, when dying, lie 

COUld say of his part of the plan of God, " It is fin- 
ished. " So every one is included in a divine plan and 
purpose, and, if true, Loyal, maj Bay at the end as did 



A Divisi: VOCATION FOB BVBBT MAN. 166 

the Master, " I too have finished the work thou gavesl 
me to do." 

Do not mistake. I would not in the least weaken re- 
gard \'<>v Baored things ; 1 would not lessen by one pulse- 
beat your love and reverence for the spiritual, the eter- 
nal: but I would thai we might look upon all tin' works 
of God with greater veneration. Lei us not think of 

pulpit, altar, and pew as leS8 s but of our homes, hills 
and valleys, our shops. Hocks, and gardens, as more sa- 
cred. Wo should not look upon the service of the sanc- 
tuary with less respect, but we should look upon every- 
thing about us as more holy ; Tor each act of life may be 
like a psalm of praise, and all we do in the home, the 
field, or the counting-room may be as truly to the glory 
of God as the most impressive ceremonies. Nay, the 
service of God is not fulfilled under the reign of Christ, 
under the law of supreme love, by singing, praying, 
and preaching at stated times and places. As Buskin 
says: "Unless we perform divine service in every will- 
ing act of our life, we never perform it at all." 

We may be ready to believe that there are, and ever 
have been, a favored few whom God elects to some 
special work or office. We have been taught that 
preachers should be divinely called to their holy work. 
And then we also see an occasional genius — one who is 
born an artist, a mechanic, a mathematician, or with an 
appetency for leadership, invention, or discovery — quali- 
fied by creation to seek a particular place, or to work out 
some special result. But these rather exceptional cases 
do not disprove the general rule that there is for all a 
divine vocation. 



166 HI 1NQ Q l TBB 770 AX 

You are ready, perhaps, to granl that some who 

lived far away and long ago were called to a special life- 
work — men like Abraham, Moses, Samuel, and Elijah. 
Then there are heroes in secular history who have been 
looked upon as the chosen instruments of Divine Provi- 
dence. Alexander of Macedon has been made to pose 
before the world as a military John the Baptist, pre- 
paring the way of the Lord, making straight across 
mountains ami deserts a highway for the coming King. 
And because of their greatness and the value of their 
labors, reverent people may believe that such men as 
Columbus, Luther, Knox, Wickliffe, Cromwell, and 
Washington were upheld and guided by the Almighty. 
If men are only great, sensational, and notorious enough, 
it is supposed that we honor God by placing them under 
his care. 

But is not this an unworthy view, — unworthy of the 
perfect providence of God, — and tinged w T ith supersti- 
tion? As if God would heed the formal petition of a 
king, while deaf to the low r , bitter cry of the orphan 
and widow! As if he too, like selfish gods and servile 
men. were ready to help the strong and bless the rich ! 
But how utterly opposed to all sycophancy are divinity 
and duty as they are revealed in the Holy Word; for 
if the Almighty shows any partiality, or if he employ- 
any special guards, it is in behalf of the feeble and de- 
fenselc 

Then, as we intimated, supcrst ition is ever ready to 
see or hear the Supreme in the mysterious, the loud 
and startling. We hear(iod in the tumult of the storm 
and the awful thunder of the earthquake, and never 



.1 ni vim-: VOCATION fOB EVERY via. 167 

doubi the Bound of bis footfall ; l>ut how deaf and 
heedless *re are when he speaks in the vernacular of his 

love and gentlei 

The pious, affectionate "Auntie" of my childhood 
would take me in her arms and. as the thunder rolled 
along the dissolving >ky, would tell me it was the v. 
of God, — and I believed her. But she did not tell me 
that the song of the robin and the sweet voice of my in- 
valid mother were also the echoes of (iod's loving pres- 

ence; hence, the God of my childhood was the Lord of 

the storm and thunder, instead of love; the Prince of 
terror, instead of a Being gentler than the mother who, 
with all her Btrength, so often pressed me to her feebly- 
beating heart. 

But the Gospel presents to our faith and love a uni- 
versal, impartial Father, who sees the sparrows fall as 
well as an empire ; who clothes the grass and paints the 
flower as well as causes the sun to shine ; whose angels 
care for infants as well as monarchs : who calls a Dorcas 
as truly as a Paul — the humblest child of grace (is well 
as an Abraham or a Luther. God is no respecter of per- 
sons, and in his perfect providence has a plan for each 
human life, whether great or humble; for every heart, 
whether beating beneath a bishop's robe, a soldier's 
uniform, or a farmer's frock. Why not ? Should we not 
expect this from a wise, loving, infinite Parent? 

All cannot be great or famous : yet al] souls belong 
to God. The most of us must be humble and unknown 
workers. I suppose the world may need an occasional 
genius now and then — a man whose tread shakes a conti- 
nent ; but it is the meek and patient who are to work 



IJYIM, Ql BSTlOm 

out its regeneration, and bring our prodigal world back 
to the Great Father. The silent Bpringa and modest 
rivulets oi the Empire State are of much more value 
than our far-fame. i Niagara. One Buch torrent is 
enough tor a continent. One such prodigy is suffi- 
cient for America. Ami it is childish superstition that 
makes the thunder of the cataract vocal with God, but 
does not hear him in the ripple of the gentle stream. 

Then how often we are mistaken in our estimate of 
the relative importance of events ! That which seemed a 
trifle lias often become an epooh of history, changing the 
Course oi' nation.- and shaping the destiny oi' millions. 

" A pebble in the streamlet scant 

Has turned the course of many a river ; 

A dewdrop on the tender plant 

Has warped the giant oak forever. " 

Streams that are the highways of commerce, and that en- 
rich an empire, take their rise from springs hidden 
away amid the mists of the mountains; and so. also, the 
riest moral results have often come from the humblest 
sources. 

The sailing of the Mayflower from Delftshaven in 
July. 1620, excited no wide surprise, attracted no spe- 
cial attention: hut all Europe watched with breathless 
interest the sailing of the Spanish Armada. Vet how 
Boon the proud licet of Philip disappeared — vanished 
like the foam of the sea. while the little storm-tos-cd 
hark that anchored at Plymouth came freighted with 

the seeds of empire, came to dedicate a new world to 

the claims of God and the rights of man. The birth of 



.1 DIVINE 70 v FOR ttVBRT M I \. U 

an heir-appareni to the throne of Austria vras heralded 
by the thundi innoD and the unfurling 

banners. Bui who in all the great world cared tor the 
birth of Luth \<me, save the humble parents, re- 

joiced thai a man-child was born in the rude home of a 
man miner ! Ami yel he was born to Buch a crown 

and a belong to no royal family, — only to tli 

who are called of God to be kings ami pri< 

We think of Paul, travel-stained ami weary, coming 
down to the Befl at Troas (buried and almosl forgotten 

Ilium). Awav across the Mgem he can jusl see the 
highlands of Europe. And we think of him, as he re- 
sponds to the €t cry from Macedonia," threading his way 
amid those classic Islands and cities, the pioneer of a 
new religion, a new life, and the creator of a new world, 
as he hastens to preach the Gospel to the sons of Japheth. 
How trivial, in the estimation of all beholders, that 
voyage of Paul ami his associates! Yet those humble 
men sail that storied sea for the conquest of a continent, 
representing a mightier power than ever floated on its 
waters before. In contrast with this, think of the in- 
terest, awe, and wonder with which the world looked on 
Xerxes and his millions when he too came down to the 
3ea, crossing the Hellespont from Asia to Europe for the 
conquest of Greece. And yet to-day, save on the his- 
torian's page, you can find no trace — not so much as 
a footprint— of Xerxes and his triumphs; while Paul is 
still a living power, his name and fame belting the globe 
with an ever-increasing zone of light and hope. 

Then, again, how often God calls the humblest, the 
most obscure, to the greatest work, to the most sacred 



17<> 



HYING (>n:<Tio\s. 



duties, and the blighted })<>ncrs; plainly Bhowing that 

he doc- not sanction our pride of birth or family, that 
no condition is beneath his notice, no life but may 
liave even a special divine purpose ! Who was the most 
honored ruler of the chosen peoplt The mighty 

prophets and leaden of Israel, and indeed of t lie world, 

have always been chosen regardless of the outward, as if 
to declare the equality of man. 

Look for a moment at a brief roll-call of God's heroes 
— those who have been workers together with him. Wil- 
liam Oarey, the missionary, whose great heart embraced 
mankind, and who, by the baptism of the Holy Spirit, 
gained "the gift of tongues," until he could preach the 
Gospel in forty Oriental dialects — William Carey was a 
cobbler. Whitefield was the son of an inn-keeper, and, 
U a boy. waited on the customers of the tap-room. 
Isaac Barrow was a draper: Dr. Williams, a farmer: Wil- 
liam Jay. a mason. Jeremy Taylor, the English Cicero 
of the pulpit, was the son of a barber. John Bunyan, 
the most popular writer of the world, was a tinker. His 
wife taught him to read and write, and God called him 
to be the teacher of millions and the leader of a count- 
less multitude from the city of Destruction to the city 
of Eternal Light. John Howard was the son of a grocer. 
Cranfield, the founderof ''ragged schools." was a tailor. 
Morrison, the missionary to China, was a last-maker. 
Milner. the historian, was B weaver; Eugh Miller, a stone- 
mason; and Sir Isaac Newton, the son of a farmer. Joseph 
was a slave : David the king, a shepherd-boy; Amos the 
prophet, a herdsman; Elijah, a vine-dresser; Elisha, a 
plowman; and Paul, a tent-maker. Peter, James, and 



A I>1 vim: roCAK >B EVERY MAN. 171 

John m shermen; whil raa a carpenter* But 

need qo1 i the list, for we cannot oame or 

number all the s 

In the next place, the i I nature teaches that 

there must be a place and mis-ion for each souL <i<»d 

a of every seed, fruit, tree, insect, animal, — in new 
of a Bpecial work and end, — "for this purpose it is 

1, for this cause it is mac It is f or the acorn 

to produce the oak — this is its definite work; while each 

violet, thistle, and u forget-m ' had its life-work 

in the designs of heaven. I Mi every Bide we see the smic 
care, order, and perfection. There is no "jumble of 

fortuities, '- but everything is adjusted to a perfect e 
tem: all estimating in a grand, comprehensive unity. 

Each particle is connected to the material universe by 
the tie of mutual dependence and support, from the foam 
of the Bea to the everlasting splendor of the stars. There 
is no vagrant drop or atom, no "prodigal .-on," in all the 
forms and forces of the material world. Each blade of 
grass and desert flower comes forth by as fixed a law as 
governs the coming of the day-spring, or as "guides 
Arcturus and his sons.'' Hence we may well conclude 
that the wise and infinite Economist, who has a place 
for each jwticle and a mission for each grain, must 
also have a place and mission for that life, whether 
it be high or humble, that comes most directly from 
himself — must have a work and design for the only be- 
ing made in the divine image. 

The elder Scripture — of nature — teaches as plainly as 
does the written Word, that we have a vocation, in 
which we find or attain to our fullness and completion; 



172 



LIVING QUE8TK 



in which alone we answ< end of our creation. 

We ar< ted to fill Borne office. Society is nol an 
indiscriminate mass, a mere human aggregation; but is 
made up of persons, each having a clear-cat, Bharply 
defined individuality thai is related to some work or 
duty. Men, like germs and plants, have their idiosyn- 
crasies and aptitudes, pointing to their divine call and 
mission. 

But we mus1 remember thai there is a point where 
the similarity between man and the organic world be- 
neath him ceases, and becomes a contrast; for he is 
not altogether like plant and animal. To him belong 
the attributes of personality, consciousness, self-deter- 
mination, and, hence, moral responsibility. Each soul 

8 distinct entity. And, unlike all other creatures, 
man is obligated by special individual claims and 
duties. For while, like the lower animals, he is under 
the common law of race, yet, unlike them and in view 
of personality, he is to be a law unto himself, true to his 
individual being. 

In opposition to the view here presented it is fre- 
quently said that our vocation depends not on a divine 
plan, but on our own choice — on our will and indus- 
try; that we may do and become anything that is 
possible to man if we are willing to pay the price, 
and that we are justified in making such a bargain. 
Having firmness, persistenl energy, we may select any 

field of labor, (dioose any mission or profession, and then 
compel success. We have greal faith in human ability, 

but this is certainly a delusion. If yon pursue the false, 

the greater the energy the more complete the failure; 



i nn TNB VOCATION F\ VAN. 173 

the more brilliant the seeming victory the darker the 
defeat. Would you avoid the wretchedness of a usel< 
burdened life, fly this atheism ! Would you disappoinl 
the Devil, who still Beeks to entice by the glittering 
temptation, " Ye may I ■ ," then turn from this 

I of life I Y<>u shall gain thai which the 
Dei il promises bui cann< , by becoming through holy 

obedience partakers of the divine nature. The crowning 
of your life depends on yourself alone; and your corona- 
tion IS BOCUred when you fully realize that alone you 

must fail, without God you area waif, — like a straw in 
the torrent, like a withered leaf in the storm. 
We have no more right to leave our Father's house as 

adventurers than we have to ir< > as prodigals; no more 
right to attempt what he did not intend us to do and be 
than to squander our substance in riot. To attempt to 
live without God is not only to live without hope, but it 
is to demand our portion and waste it. This doctrine 
of adventure, of practical atheism, leads us — because of 
a base pride or a mean, fawning spirit ; because we are 
beguiled with glitter and spangles — to despise honorable 
toil, a useful vocation, and to attempt what we cannot 
do well, thus making our lives perfect only as a cheat 
and a failure. One decides to be a physician — not be- 
cause he has the gift of healing, but because it is a re- 
spectable, lucrative profession. He thinks not of the 
solemn issues before him, — that he is to enter the lists a 
champion of hope and life, to defend the weak and dy- 
ing; but thinks it fine to be called " Doctor," and to 
ride in a gig. So teachers, lawyers, and preachers are 
often guided by the same arbitrary reason — or lack of 



174 LIVING QUESTIONS. 

reason,— looking upon life, not as a precious Bteward- 
Bhipj but rather as a dream or a game. 

In our youth we were taught that preachers must have 
a divine call or be guilty of Bacrilege. We believed the 
doctrine then, because we were so taught: we believe it 
now, because it ie in harmony with the character, the 
providence, and the Word of God. But we were also 
taught that there wasin behalf of preachers a special call, 
a miraculous intimation of duty, and a preparation for 
the sacred work of the ministry altogether exceptional 
This we do not believe, because " God is no respecter of 
persons;" because we have no right to call any man 
"common or unclean" who is obedient to the will of 
Beaven; because the man who swings the sledge-hammer 
may be just as near the heart of God as the man who 
holds a scepter: because one who works with his hands 
may be as noble, as divine, as the one who works with his 
brain; because the laborer — the producer, " though clad 
in hodden gray," and not the idler, though clothed in 
royal purple — is truly noble and Godlike; and because 
the artisan is just as needful in building the temple of 
God as the architect. The hewers of wood and of stone 
in the mountain and the quarry are as truly "laborers 
together with Him" as the king who is inspired to plan 
and build the " house of the Lord." 

The man who digs the coal from the mine, or rives the 
oak. or quarries the marble, or turns the furrowed sod 
for the grain, finds beneath and around him not the foot- 
prints only, but the handiwork, of God, — just as truly as 
does a Newton or a Luther, a Robert Fulton or a Cyrus 

W. Field. 



.1 DIVINE VOCATION FOR EVER! MAN. L75 

It w;^ an Infinite Hand that firsi reared the masonry 
of the mountains, and carved the hills, and unrolled the 
prairies; that furnished tin- coal, the granite, and the 
iron, the copper, the diver, and the gold: and shall Ho 
— or shall we despise t he servant that brings onl the ex- 
cellence and the value oi his own precious treasures— the 
marvelous results of God's wisdom and love? 

It is our own vapid, childish fancies and felse conclu- 

sions, our selfishness and pride, that lead ns to make 

scornful, invidious comparisons between the children of 
the Most High; while the Great Father, impartial in 

his love, makes no <>ne wise and strong and rich and 
spiritual for himself alone, hut for the good and the 
blessing of all. 

We were talking of preachers, and Baying that a 
preacher Bhould have a divine call. There can he no 
doubt of this. But so also has the true former, teacher, 
mason, shipwright, and artificer in brass and iron. As 
if to prevent all mistakes, we find special callings and 
special inspiration bestowed upon laborers — upon those 
who shape and utilize the material. In the olden time 
•• God called Bezaleel the son of Uri, and filled him with 
his spirit." that he might devise cunning works in gold, 
silver, and brass; that he might be skillful in cutting 
stone and carving wood. And God gave him as a fellow- 
workman and helper, Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of 
the tribe of Dan: and God gave them wisdom that they 
might make his sanctuary according to the vision and 
the commands of Closes. 

We arc not to feel that the preacher's vocation is less 



176 UVINQ QUESTIONS. 

sacred, but thai all honest callings are more divine, and 
that whatever we do we are to labor with God. 

No doubt there are those bo submissive and reveren- 
tial to the authority of the Church as to feel that the 
first and most essential thing for a preacher is to receive 

lesiastical sanction, so that he may be able to answer 
with propriety the inevitable question, " By what au- 
thority doest thou these things?" — to be able to answer 
this question by duly presenting his denominational cre- 
dentials. Hut, notwithstanding this reverence for church 
and clerical power, it remains true that no act of ordina- 
tion or of installation confers upon the candidate any 
quality or gift of mind; and many a man has been cere- 
monially consecrated to the work of the ministry whom 
God had previously called to follow the plow, hew the 
timber, or guide the ship; while no doubt there are 
those on the farm, in office, shop, or store, whose true 
vocation it is to " preach the Word," to break to the fam- 
ishing the bread of life. The minister's call comes not 
from academic or theological halls, but "to this end was 
he born, and for this cause, or work, came he into the 
world." 

Many of us get tangled or misplaced by attempting 
what we are not called to do; and this breeds confusion 
in the moral world — such confusion as is never seen in 
the material. We never see the least disorder or dis- 
placement among the lower animals, — the ant never at- 
tempting the work of the bee, or the beaver that of the 
oriole. The woodpecker taps the hollow tree, and the 
swallow builds amid the rafters of the barn, or finds a 
shelter beneath its eaves. The lion knows his hunting- 



.1 DIVINE VOCATION FOB EVERT KAN. 1 

ml thf tiger, always the tcrr<»r <>f the jungle, 
provides her whelps with bloody food. Hut rising in 

the scale of creation wc miss this perfect «>r<ler; tor 
there are among men gross mistakes in regard to place 
and mission, causing unrest, failure, ami disgrace. 

Tins is not that Gk>d oares Less for us than for birds 
and bea8ts, but because he care> for us as he cannot 

care for them. They are under the law of instinct; we 

are under the guidance <>f reason: they act by necessity; 
man made in the divine image is free-born. He is not 
altogether subject to the fixed succession of cause and 
effect that pervades the material and organic world 
beneath him. He is created a conscious, responsible 
power, having the ability because of his spiritual nature 
to originate action — for all force in heaven or earth must 
have its source in mind, in spirit. But man has the 
divine gift of self-determination: he can choose the 
path he will pursue — can mar or can make complete the 
creation of God. Having such prerogative, and being 
often swayed by temptation, w T e therefore see in the 
moral world such disorder as cannot exist under the 
dominion of physical law. Inasmuch as we are to secure 
the glory of virtue and the rewards of holiness by choos- 
ing the good and refusing the evil, there must be the 
possibility of our taking the wrong course; the possibility 
of prostituting instead of consecrating our powers; of 
rejecting instead of obeying the will of God. 

If we look fairly, we shall find that among the most 
fruitful sources of evil is the refusal to be guided by 
divine counsel, and thus fill the place assigned us in the 
holy purposes of God. "Ye shall be as gods/' was the 



178 LlVnrO QUE8TI0H - 

■ml enticement of the firs! temptation; and men are 
still the victims of the Bame burnished lie and gilded 
promise! Dazzled by the Bplendid offers of selfishn< 
we often torgel the claims of the Almighty: forgel thai 
Infinite Love lias a place and a work for every one; has 
a throne and crown priceless, eternal, for our fidelity, 
and to which we shall succeed when we hear "Well 

done, good and faithful servant." 

Let mi develop the germ divinely implanted, content 
to be ourselves, and ambitions only to fulfill our own mis- 
sion. Useful work, well done, not only has its reward, 
but is equally, whether high or humble, the Lord's work. 
We are dishonored when we fail; and fail we must in 
attempting what we cannot do well. Better succeed as 
a plowman than fail as a king. Better Le a good, manly 
blacksmith or ditcher than a poor, dull preacher. Be 
what you can he, and attempt what need- doing, and what 
OUghl to he done by you hecause you can do it well. 
We should do what we can do best, and he assured we 
are always called t<> that life-labor in which we can best 
build up a noble, Godlike character; for the highest 
possible result of all labor, the more than golden reward 
of toil, is a divine manhood, a divine womanhood. 

No, let us not teach the young thai they may become 
anything, or succeed in any pursuit ; hut that in their 
vocation, whatever it may he, they can be true and 
manly. And if not great amongthe ambitious, yet they 
may he reckoned honorable among the best; for within 
reach of the hardest hand, performing the humblest duty, 
there is a crown that no wicked prince, no sharp mil- 
;ure, no faithl<>> kin-'., can ever purchase or emu- 



.1 DIVINE VOCATION WOR EVERY v.i.v. 1?'.) 

ma ml, the crown of an immortal manhood, Wecannol 
all reap the rewards ol genius thai is, its special, Let 

rewards; bul We may all win that which Lfi better, that 

which is highest: tor with all that art, power, inspiration, 
knowledge, and gold can givej we may be something 
than a true man. 

For Borne end you were horn, for some work endowed; 
yon are girded for some race, armed for Borne conflict, 

Ordained for some divine mission. He who made the 
bird for the air, the fish for the sea, the goal tor the 
mountain cliff, and the camel for the desert, has not 

forgotten man, hut made him for a vocation that shall 
honor God and bleSfl the race. 

Again : That each man has his place and work is 
plainly a Bible doctrine. The Prophet Isaiah says : 
"() Lord, thou art our Father: we are the clay, ami 
thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand." 
And St. Paul asks: ''Hath not the potter power over 
the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto 
honor, and another unto dishonor?" The potter makes 
one vessel for a high, another for a humble, place; hut 
in all he has a definite design in molding the clay upon 
the wheel. So God makes men: one for an exalted posi- 
tion, another for common service; one to be a lawgiver, 
another to till the soil; one to be the leader of a nation, 
another to keep his flocks upon the mountain-side; one 
to hold a scepter, another a marline-spike. As the potter 
can make one vessel for fruit, another for wine; one a 
vase for flowers, another a platter for food, — so God 
created man, forming his body, endowing his mind, in- 
spiring his soul, guided alone by His own love and wis- 



1 81 1 LIVING Q UEBTION& 

dom. And we have HO reason to complain of our bodies, 

our powers and faculties; do cause for complaint because 

we have not ten senses, or the wings of an angel; because 
we have not the eves of Argus, the arms of BriareuSj or 
the swiftness and cunning of Mercury. 

Lei Qfl not make the mistake of supposing that God's 
Care and election are limited to what we call the religious 

world, or to ecclesiastical affairs. God's providence is 

too full and wide, wise and loving, to be comprehended 

within any such boundary-lines : for all things, the 
secular a.- well as the sacred, have a moral purpose; while 
the universe in its entirety is expressive of the holiness 
as well as the power of God. 

No one can doubt that in subduing nature, in reveal- 
ing its wealth, force, truth, and beauty; in bringing the 
ends of the earth together and uniting the nations in 
trade and fellowship, — no one doubts that in this men 
fulfill the designs of God. Looking at the busy, earnest 
world of to-day, who can doubt that the mission of 
engineers, shipwrights, inventors, architects, farmers, 
sailors, scientists, may be as truly for the glory of God 
and the good of man as the calling of preachers and 
prophets? Yes, the work of God — of redemption — is 
going on in the wilderness, the mine, the quarry, the work- 
shop ; on the prairie, on the ship, and the black wharves 
of commerce, — as really as in the theological school or 
prayer-meeting. ( J od's glory is promoted on the farm, 
in foundry and machine-shop, by the locomotive and 
printing-press, by the manufactures and trade of the 
wide world; hence men are divinely called not only to 
preach, but to build, invent, to unite the nations and 



.1 DIVINE VOCATION FOB EVERY MAN 181 

bring the oontinenta p their bands" both above 

and beneath the sea. How narrow to suppose that in 
-Dine Little conventicle, by the dull routine of pn 

prayers and exhortations, we can alone glorify God! 
But he is not thus limited in purpose and sympathy. 
lie calls men to work with him in the mill ami market; 

in living the oak ami the rock: in building railways ami 

steamships; in laboratory ami studio, as well as in chan- 
cel ami pulpit,— in everything that may exalt, enlighten, 

bless, ami save. 

It is our duty thankfully to accept ourselves, body and 

mind, brain ami brawn; with ten talents or two, with 

the soul of a poet or the muscles of an athlete, — and 
then reverently, cheerfully, till our place ami do our 
work with manly fidelity. This is true greatness; this 
often reveals the highest heroism. And in the lowest, 
humblest stations you may find those who, unnoticed 
now, wear invisible crowns that shall one day Bash into 
eternal brightness. 

There is a world full of work waiting to be done, and 
I am manliest when doing well that for which I am 
fitted, and to which I am called. How grand, how 
solemn, the thought that every one is thus included, 
not in the fixed succession of cause and effect, but in 
the providence of Heaven, and is a recognized power, 
who may be honored as such in the final consummation 
of the purposes of God ! Truly "the steps of a good 
man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his 
way." 

While firmly believing the doctrine presented, we are 
aware of an important and difficult question that must 



182 LIVlMi QUESTIONS. 

have been suggested to the mind of every hearer. If it 
be true that each life has to God a plan, a design that 
we should work out, yet how an* we to discover that 
plan, h«>\v ascertain that design? Have wo a right to 
expect supernatural aid by dream or vision, by voices in 
the air, or by any striking means that shall forever ban- 
ish all doubt concerning the Divine Will? This would 
load to fanaticism and the most malignant spiritual pride. 
And no form of madness is more to be deplored than a 
moral, a religious craze, in which conscience and reason 
are 

"Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh." 

No doubt the supposed difficulties surrounding this 
subject may to some minds greatly les>en the practical 
value of this doctrine. Yet the solution of this life- 
problem need not be so hard. If we maintain a childlike 
spirit, if we comply with the manifest laws of moral be- 
ing, if we exercise our reason, if we recognize the pres- 
ence of God and the power of prayer, if we are submis- 
sive teachable, trusting, we shall find our place. 

We cannot overestimate the importance of early guid- 
ance and wisdom, so thai we may in the freshness of 
our youth begin our life-work. Alas, what waste of 
mind we see on every side! How many from the end 
of this journey look back with the feeling that life is a 
failure! They have been idlers, adventurers, neither 
in sympathy with nor acting under the orders of the 
Greal Master Workman. Now it is too late. Instead 

of having transmuted from the leaden Eacts and duties 

of life a golden chain — a crown, one stands amid a heap 



.1 DIVINE VOCATION FOB BVBBT MAX 188 

Token links a mass of dross and rubbish. It need 
qo1 have been bo; tor we look upon another who ap- 
pears glorified, transfigured, in the evening sunshine. 

Hr is rich —ripe like the purple clusters of the vintage 
or the golden corn of the harvest; or, to change the fig- 
ure, — after life's voyage, bis vessel is jus! now rounding 
into port, deeply freighted, Btowed with wealth from 
keelson up to deck. He, having Fulfilled his earthly 
mission, can Bay with infinite peacefulness, u I have 
finished the work given me to do/ J 

But how shall we find our place and vocation? Be- 
fore giving a direct answer, and to save words, let Die 
ask why men make such frequent and gross mistakes? 
For there is confusion in society, there is waste, discon- 
tent, and chagrin, because men are BO often misplaced. 
The young man who is endowed with the gift of teach- 
ing studies medicine, while he that has the gift of heal- 
ing becomes a lawyer. The machinist becomes a mer- 
chant, while the boy built for the sea is never launched, 
but remains forever the hulk of a landsman. Mechani- 
cal talent is hidden under clerical robes, while the man 
made to build barns and bridges attempts the construc- 
tion of sermons. No wonder there is failure. Some- 
thing more than industry or will-power is demanded as 
the price of success; something more than courage is 
needful to be victorious; fidelity alone will not crown us 
with earthly honor and confidence. 

1 . Among the causes of this confusion we may give the 
first place to Pride. True to its malignant character, it 
still snares and deceives, pointing to many useful call- 
ings as mean, low, servile. So, as its devotees, we shun 



184 



LI VI Mi QUESTIONS. 



and despise them aa dishonorable, — as if it were more 

respectable to stand with a smile behind a counter than 

t<> till thesoil ! It may seem a higher vocation to sell cal- 

i than t<> cultivate potatoes, but how contemptible the 

spirit that Fosters and approves such a brainless conceit I 

Bow blind this silly pride ! It docs not consider that 
the to}>, no matter how high, rests on the base; that 
the root sustains the tree; that the civilized world, the 
world of fashion, with all its glitter and froth is de- 
pendent as a baby on the hard hands of toilers; that 
all our luxuries and refinements depend on the humble 
artisan. If the fanner and mechanic should withdraw 
their support, it would be like a Lisbon earthquake, — 
the "upper crust'* of the earth would be shattered, and 
down would tumble all the idle grandeur of the land. 
On despised avocations rest all that pride and avarice 
covet. Strange that we despise the very antecedents of 
our life and welfare: and it reveals the marvelous power 
and skill of Satan that even professed Christians — fol- 
lowers of the Mechanic of Nazareth, the Carpenter of 
Galilee — are beguiled to exhibit their supercilious con- 
tempt of those callings which God has supremely hon- 
ored, and that more than all else symbolize his hand of 
mercy by feeding and clothing the dependent world. 

2. Another cause of confusion and waste is Ambition. 
There is a justifiable unrest, a holy discontent, a hunger 
of the soul for sweeter food, a reaching out and up lor 
the higher, nobler, — for the spiritual, the eternal. But 
selfish aims, no matter how high they soar, how bright 
they shine, are earth-born, ending in the dust. 

There is a pernicious idea abroad that "if a young 



,1 hi vim-: I- \ FOR EVSBl v.i.\ 

man would be anything or anybody" he hum 

a professions >r. [ndeed, with many this is the 

ideal of lit'f it- :'. ! ><> you wonder that the lower itr 
of our honorable professions of law, literature, theoloj 
ami medicine are bo dishonorably crowded? Bow con- 
temptible the idolatry of mere place, or of the empty 
symbols <>f power, leading us to xmd- or a 

third-rate lawyer, doctor, or preacher as superior t<> a 
first-rate blacksmith or farmer; whereas they are in- 
ferior to a first-rate anything, — no matter how humble, 
if the calling he useful, manly ! 

:;. Avarice often blinds US to the path of duty, mis- 
leading into false, forbidden ways. This passion is 
perhaps the most to be dreaded of the many dangers 
that threaten our ruin. As a people we have more to 
fear from the love of money than the love of wine : 
much more to fear from the intoxication of wealth 
than whiskey. To us avarice is more dangerous than 
appetite. With many the question is not, "What will 
make list What will make us noble, useful, Godlike?" 
— but, "'What will make money?" All excellence and 
honor because of fitness, because of the Divine Will, are 
disregarded if we can push into a place that is lucrative, 
though Satan counts out the gold. 

There is one other point we must notice. Men do 
not always choose unwisely because of th 1 influ- 

ences; for sometimes good persons are beside themselves, 
— made mad not by much learning, but confused by a 
mild kind of religious fanaticism, in which pure desires 
are mistaken for a divine call, for divine intimations of 
duty. Enthusiasm may prevail over reason; and sin- 



ISC LIVING QUESTIONS. 

cerest love, unaided by wisdom and good counsel, may 
lead astray, Hence, after seasons of special religious 
interest the devout and sensitive among the young 
often think they are called to preach; when they have 
Only the common, blessed experience of Christian love; 
the heart expanding with the spirit of the Gospel, and 
echoing the song of all who find the Christ. — " Glory to 
God in the highest, and good-will to men !" But with 

these emotions there is not necessarily the knowledge, 

the ability, needed for a public teacher of Christianity. 
For this high office one should have not only great love 
and holy desires, hut a message from the Lord: not mere- 
ly an impulse to run — run at all hazards, like the swift, 
restless Ahimaaz from the camp of General Joab in the 
"wood of Kphraim;" hut we must have tidings to de- 
liver — tidings from " the Captain of the Lord's host," or 
we too, like this empty messenger, shall run in vain, and 
like him shall soon be told to stand aside. 

Of course such mistaken zeal is not like the debasing 
sin of simony, — not like choosing falsely because of any 
form of selfishness. Neither would I dare sav that one 
must have what IS termed a theological education, be 
attractive in person, both fluent and eloquent, before 
entering the pulpit. For how often the one who seems 
weak, who is humble, childlike, is yet made even a 

mighty instrument for good, "a sou of thunder," or a 
"son of consolation"! Though one may not be the 

Lord's Niagara or Amazon, yet he may be an humble 
channel for the Water of Life, making green and fruit- 
ful the blasted wastes of rfn. 

But how may I know my calling? How find my 



.t hi vi\h: VOi AT10H FOB EVERY i/.i.v. 1ST 

place? 1 1' we are honest, pur*-, obedient to the Ian of 
low, most of tli*' diflft Burrounding this question 

once vanish. To those who have strong proclivil 
who come gifted by nature with special powers tor sonic 

work or mission, the 0886 Lfl plain, the answer unmis- 
takable. To on( gifted like Benjamin West, who made 
the first picture be ever Baw, there can be no question 
warding his vocation. But our Beavenly Father docs 
not offer a prize to thoughtlessness: even blessing hue a 
pric tcrifice, is the fruit of earnest effort; and hence 

there are few whose childhood is bo prophetic as to free 
them from all painful doubt. 

In general terms, to learn the Divine Will we arc to 
consider three things : 

1. The character of Ilim who calls you to participate 
in his labor and to share his glory. He is wise, holy, just, 
and loving ; hence your vocation must be pure, useful, 
honest, and merciful. He appoints to nothing that can 
degrade or injure, but to labor that will enrich, bless, 
and redeem the world. 

2. Obedience. The breathing of the heart must be, 
"Thy will be done." Then, like Paul, we shall not be 
" disobedient to the heavenly vision," whatever it may 
be; and you may expect divine direction to that first, 
best prayer, — " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" 

Let me present our relation to God by a familiar 
figure or parable. Suppose you enter a large shipyard. 
To your ignorance, inexperience, all is confusion. There 
is the blended sound of hammer, ax, saw, and mallet. 
Now you have a mind to work, you would gladly aid. 
It will not do, however, for you to seize ax or saw or 



188 LIVING QUESTIONS. 

mallet, and eul or drive or fashion as impulse dire* 
There ifi no confusion. Bach man among these hun- 
dreds of stalwart workers has his place and mission. 

"And though throughout the shipyard's bounds 
Arc heard the Intermingled sounds 
of axes and of mallets, plied 

With vigorous arms on every side," 

— vet every sound has its meaning, every block and pin 
and plank has its place: for there is somewhere a master- 
shipwright, in whose mind there is a perfect plan of all 
this work. Yonder he is, quiet, attentive; clothed with 
supreme authority, directing all these hands and these 
instruments of labor. 

" In the shipyard stands the master 
With the model of the vessel 
That shall laugh at all disaster, 
And with wave and whirlwind wrestle.'* 

\ow, if you would work to any purpose, if you would 
aid in promoting instead of marring the plan, it must 
be under the direction of the shipwright. To him you 
must saw " What wilt thou have me to do?" And it 
is the same with architect, engineer, farmer : if you 
would work in the shop, on a farm, or a building, to 
the master who designs and directs the work you must, 
if you would he helpers, offer the same prayer. 

The application is manifest. There is above all One 
who in supreme wisdom "worketh until now," — One 
whose workshop is the universe, whose purposes of 
mercy till eternity, and who would have each soul in its 
true place, employed in its appointed task, by the or- 
dination of mora] law, by spiritual influences, — as each 



i DIVINE I rON F 'KHY V.I.N I Si) 

grain and ind drop is in its appointed place bj 

of physical law. 
Ami uv in.iv . thai the i I and believing 

will be directed ; that upon Buch hearts will fall a light 
that oever Bhineson land or sea; that an invisible hand 
and "a still small voice* 9 will guide the humble in the 

right way 

" Not always with an outward sign 

( )f lire or voice from heaven 

The message Of a truth divine, 

The call of God, la given ; 

Awakening in the human heart 

Love f^r the true and right, 

Zeal for the Christian's better part. 
Strength for the Christian's fight" 

3. Consecration of heart as a condition of divine 
guidance. Service is a condition of knowledge. u Ee 
that doeth the will of God shall know," not only of doc- 
trine or precept, but of practice; for it is by walking in 
the way that the path itself is clearly revealed. All 
trust in God is honored with increasing light. Reason, 
conscience, emotion, every gift and faculty, by their 
consecration become the means of revealing the will of 
Heaven. Elizabeth Fry said to her daughter during her 
last illness: "I believe I can truly say that since the 
aire of seventeen I have never awakened from sleep, in 
sickness or in health, by day or by night, without my 
first waking thought being, how I might best serve the 
Lord." Such devotion cannot walk in darkness, 

Again: It is both safe and wise for the young to seek 
the advice of friends. In the church, in spiritual mat- 



L90 uvnra question 

tere, there are those who have %i the gift of the ^scorn- 
ing of Bpirits:" saintly, childlike hearts, who seem in- 
stinctively to recognize the qualities of mind as well as 
the character of those aboul them. 

But in all cases we must examine ourselves, listen to 
the inward voice and watch the inward light Question 
ability, taste, and desire. If you find you have color- 
blindness you may he sure you are not called to be an 
artist or a pilot, for in either case accurate vision is de- 
manded. The dumb are not called to preach, nor the 
blind to paint. If you are so destitute of musical per- 
ception and expression as to be unable to distinguish a 
chord from a discord, a dirge from a waltz, you cannot 
glorify God u in the service of song," nor bless the world 
as a composer. "The pure in heart" hive the gift not 
only of seership. but of prophecy; and God imparts a 
love, a taste, for the work lie requires: for '-'his com- 
mands are not grievous/' As a general rule, it maybe 
said of those who are successful in life, — 

" What the child desired. 
The youth endeavored and the man acquired." 

I need not remind you of the disappointments, the 
vexations, and the waste — the prodigal waste — of mmd, of 
spiritual wealth, arising from misdirected energies, from 
misplaced lives, that is so greatly to be deplored. Those 
who might have been candles of the Lord, or his flam- 
ing heralds, are hidden under the bushel of some secu- 
lar or of some sacred calling, and their light quenched; 
for not only the world, but the Church, may ad as an 
extinguisher. 



.1 DIVINE VOCATION FOB EVERT VAN. 191 

Bad G< Stephenson been persuaded to enter the 

clerical profession, how the English pulpit would have 
quenched a divine liirht! Or, if (Jeorge Wliitefield or 
John Wesley had andertaken the task of engineering, 
how little the world would have gained by his efforts I 
But by having the righl man in the righl place, it may 
be said of these prophets of God as was said of Caesar, 
**lli' found Rome brick, and left it marble;"— so they 
find the world poor, corrupt, and ignorant, and they 
leave it prosperous, enterprising, hopeful, with the 
moans of making it, not marble, but golden. 

The conclusion of the matter is this: How important 
for the world and \'ov Qurselves that we consult in a 
teachable spirit the Great Ruler, whose wisdom is in- 
finite, and whoso plan of grace embraces all moans for 
the consummation of his love — the ultimate blessedness 
of all his children! Lot us be reverent ami obedient. 
If you stand on the threshold of life, I pray you be not 
adventurers, but the bosom friends of God, Let all 
your plans accord with his will; then your path will be 
under arches of triumph, and your future will be 1 
spanned with bows of immortal hope. 



Pebsonal Liberty. 

•• stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath set 
free. . . . For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty ; 

only use not liberty for an occasion to the tlesh, but by love 

Berve one another. " — QalaUam v. l, 13. 

The blessings of God to a chosen few, to his elect, 
are always promises of his impartial love, of impartial 
care and merry for all mankind. His regard for one 
Bon, whether it be the elder or the younger, is not a 
limitation of his paternity, but the pledge, the assur- 
ance, of his universal Fatherhood. 

The Scriptures teaeh that God u elected " angels, pa- 
triarchs, prophets, the Jewish nation, apostles, saints, 
and above all his Son, — ik My Servant, whom I uphold, 
mine elect, in whom my soul delight et h, v — not, however, 
for their sake so much as through them to bless and 
save the lost. No : his elect are not chosen because God 
18 a respecter of persons or of nations, but because he 
would redeem the least and lowest — the feeble ones — of 
his wide family. 

And so, in the spirit of our text, we may safely judge 

and hope concerning God's love — his love for the least 

— by the crowns he puts upon the highest ; for he exalts 

the mighty not for the sake of the mighty, but by 

them to uplift and bless the weak and fallen. He 

192 



PERSONAL UBBBTY. L93 

makes the rich richer, qo1 ko make the poor }>«»«. ■ , 
is the oase in Satanic dominioi] and society: but the 
rich arc for the poor, the strong for the feeble, the \\ i - < • 
\\<v the ignorant, the good for the bad ; while under 

his authority no man can li\c or die unto himself. 

i makes his kings to be Beivanta and his rulers to 
wait upon the n for in his commonwealth great- 

ness is always measured by service rendered instead oi 

received : and the greatesl are found not in Beats of au- 
thority or ease, hut they are found patiently bearing, 

that they may hoar away the burdens and galling op- 
pressions <>f the world. Hence, as the apostle says in 

our text. u Ye have been called unto liberty/ 1 — not to 
gratify selfishness by license, u but by love to serve one 

another." 

These words of the apostle derive new light and force 
from our surroundings ; for it is amid special blessings 
and national mercies of opportunity and freedom un- 
known before, that this appeal is made to us. How 
great our indebtedness, how imperative our obligations, 
in view of the boundless "liberty wherewith Christ 
hath made us free"! For is not this civil heritage of 
ours included also in the liberty that Christ bestows? 
We accept him as the author of our spiritual freedom ; 
but if we would take in the full, grand meaning of 
these words of Paul, we must not look at them as 
cramped or narrowed by mere ecclesiastical interpreta- 
tion. 

Christ is infinitely larger and more glorious than he 
is often presented by the Church. He is not the ruler 
of some little conventicle, or the special property of a 



194 LTVnrQ QUESTIONS 

sect. Be U not the Saviour of a limited pharisaic club, 
the glory of a Belecl guild of Bpiritual monopolists, who 
(Maim an<l hold him by some exclusive privilege or char- 
ter from heaven ; bul he is the Son of man, — the 

Brother of all, the Ruler and Lover of all, with univer- 
sal presence and dominion, — having the u heathen for 

hifl inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for 
his possession." And wherever there is liberty, civil or 
religions, — freedom from sin or from the oppression of a 
tyrant, from priestcraft or kingcraft, from superstition 
or lust, — it is still " the liberty wherewith Christ makes 
free." 

It seems clear enough that we do not misinterpret 
our text when we apply it also to our national free- 
dom ; for this came not originally from Parliament or 
Congress, from the men of "seventy-six," or their 
successors in office and heroism ; it came not from 
the House of Burgesses at AVilliamsburg, or Faneuil 
Hall, or the " Old South Church :" the "Cradle of our 
Liberty," of American independence, is not at Boston, 
but at Bethlehem — for in a stable was our freedom 
born. Xot to Washington with his true and tried 
band do we look ; since if we trace our blessings to their 
source, we find that for "Washington's self, with his 
spotless virtue and spotless sword, we are indebted to 
Jesus, who came "to set at liberty them that are bruised, 
to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." Behold 
a greater than Washington is here ! Not to the ever- 
memorable Fourth of July, 1776, do we owe so much ; 
but this OUT natal day comes in direct succession, hv 
the providence of God, from a holier birth-hour amid 



PX&SOXAI IlUFllTY. 106 

Jadean hills, — is itsell edal fruit of khe year- 
dating from the first Christinas tnortuo 

Not from «»ur " Declaration trf Independence" do we 
derive our precious freedom; for this grand State paper 
is itself bul an imperfeoi echo of the sublime truths of 
our heavenly Magna Charts the Gospel of the Son of 
Gk>dj that contains a full appraisal of all human rights, 
and the divine pledge of the world's redemption* 

Our design Lb not to speak of national freedom or of 

our special political blessings; hut taking B wider view, 
and aided by the Word and the Providence of God, let 
us look at the rights and privf I man. 

It is plainly the Gospel idea, that while man must be 
in subjection, he is yet in the highest sense to be free: 

that he is not oppressed l»ut exalted by obligation ; and 
while conscious of service justly due, yet in yielding 
this he is to find, not bondage, but liberty, — the comple- 
tion, the crowning, of his manhood. His good is not in 
license, nor his glory in the loss or mutilation of self- 
hood ; but they are found in being a subject, a minister, 
and in being a law unto himself by the exercise of his 
reason, reverence, and love. By these means he attains 
to his majority, — he attains the only complete freedom. 
In the Gospel the individual comes to the front, 
grand and sacred as the u image of God :" and his 
rights are not to be invaded, but promoted, — not de- 
stroyed, but secured, — by governments, by all social or- 
ganisms. As an entity, a unit, his individualism is to be 
recognized and honored by his union with any body, 
politic or ecclesiastic The use of government is to 
serve, to edify, the individual. All systems, all institu- 



LI vim; QUESTIONS, 

tioQ8, arc to bold tile stirrup for man and aid him into 

, Lie : fur unless they fulfil] the office of helpers, 
even to the little ones of God, they are more than use- 
less, and their final doom is scaled. 

Men may he united, — federated and not saerilieed, 
united into a close and complete union, blended into 
perfect organic harmony, —and yet retain their indi- 
vidual rights, 

Onity without loss or oppression; liberty without li- 
cense or anarchy; society complete, and yet perfect per- 
il freedom ; BOCiety and government for the man, — 
yes, Church and State, Temple and Sabbath, are to aid 
and bless ; this is the grand idea of the (iospel em- 
bodied in the Christian commonwealth. 

We must have organism where there is life, we must 
have society regulated by law, and we must have the 
individual with his divine powers ; and in harmony witli 
these demands Christianity teaches the supremacy of 
the man over all,, — society, church, state, home, altar, 
throne, empire ; every order and system exists for the 
individual. 

The Blaster said : " In this place is One greater than 
the temple." Evidently he meant more than that as 
Immaniicl he was greater than those marble walls. It 
Was in bifl representative character as the Son of man 
that he spoke of this comparative greatness. He said 
this not for himself; hut in this place, in any place, in 

any land, wherever the [mage of God is found, there is 

one greater than temples and institutions: for man him- 
self musl he of greater value than his works, as "the 
builder hath more honor than the building." 



PBBBONAL UBBRTT. 107 

And Jesus presented the same precioue truth when 
hesaid, "The Sabbath was made for man, aol man tor 
the Sabbath." What a howl oi hatred and bigotry this 
doctrine called forth ! It was like the howl ol the woU 
when it Bcents the blood ol the lamb. These brave words 
vrere the death-warrant of the Saviour. The priests 
never forgave him, and uever ceased to hunt him until 
he was crucified. 

In Ihe rights ot man as man, in the sanctity oi his 
selfhood, in the blessings Of unity and liberty, in the 
ideal commonwealth where all are brethren and all are 
equal, — as presented in the Gospel, — we have a vision so 
holy. Original, and blessed that we may exclaim with full 
assurance, "This is the finger of God!" This miracle 
was not designed or wrought by earthly magicians, hut 
declares the presence and love of the Seavenly Father. 
Vet how hard it has been to realize the true value of 
man, to secure his recognition ! how difficult to heed 
the divine command, "Honor all men!" Human his- 
tory is but a record of the struggles of man for this 
recognition, a dark record of almost continued defeat 
and oppression. 

Just between organized society, both political and 
ecclesiastical, and our conscious personality, between 
the claims of the one and the rights of the other, — just 
here has been the border-land of conflict. To us, as 
citizens, this conflict has virtually ended— ended in the 
triumph of human rights and freedom. 

But the question, What are our relations to our breth- 
ren, our fellow-citizens iii the kingdom of Christ— our 
religious relations and our rights? — this has been and 



108 



LIVING QUESTIONS. 



still is a subject of intense interest How about our per- 
sonal freedom? We cannot be independent; yet, as the 
children of the Highest, it would seem that we must 
inherit as our birthright the widest liberty. What is 

the true relation of the Chureh to the disciple, and of 

the disciple t<> the Church, — the relation of all human 

authority and power to OUT personality, our conscience, 
and our gift of Belf -determination ? Just bere, I say, 

between the individual, as the image of God, and the 
powers of State and Church, has been the hot, fierce 
struggle of the age8 past. Here the dead lie thickest 
and the blood is deepest, plainly showing where the 
battle raged with greatest fury. Here persecution, in- 
spired by ambition and bigotry, lias shown no mercy, 
but lias geared her engines to the machinery of torture, 
sharpened her sword, kindled her fires, planted the cross, 
and slain her millions. 

How fortunate our position ! How little we know of 
persecution ! And, thank God, we know nothing of 
toleration ! For in our political life we have nothing to 
do with conformity or non-conformity, with priest or 
bishop, heretic or heresy, subscription or dissent, as 
before the law all are equal. Until the adoption of our 
Federal Constitution such liberty was unknown. Tolera- 
tion towards those who did not hold with the party iu 
power was the most that could be expected by the 
minority. For centuries it was "a settled maxim that 
the only sure way to convert a heretic was to put him to 
death;" at least this was the popular method of dealing 
with heresy. Hence it was a long step in the right 
direction when those who were so manly as to think for 



PBH80KAL URSSTT. L90 

themselves were permitted to live, and had doled out to 
them mutilated rights and -tinted privileges under the 

jealous eve of the government, as li suspected of crime; 

vet such toleration was hotter than the burnings <>f Queen 
Mary, the oountless murders of Charles the Fifth, or the 

ma88acres <>f Catherine de J Medici. 

We should remember that until a recent period all 
good men believed in the right, the necessity, of State 

authority in religion. All believed in the necessity of 
an "established church;" the only difference between 

conformity and dissent, the orthodox and heterodox, 
being the character of the established faith. For a 

time ardent reformers feared and denounced liberty 
almost as much as did their opposers. Luther, Calvin, 
and Knox did not especially differ from Mary Tudor and 
Cardinal Pole in regard to the use of the power of the 
State in aiding and defending the Church. Protestant 
Elizabeth, with the Archbishop of Canterbury, de- 
manded conformity by arguments that martyrs alone can 
meet, and no difference in this respect can be seen be- 
tween the hierarchy of England and the hierarchy of 
Rome ; between the hierarchy of Massachusetts Colony, 
with Kndicott at its head, and that of Geneva, with the 
great Calvin as supreme hierarch — zealous even to the 
kindling of orthodox fire for the golden purity of the 
faith. We should remember that at this time, no mat- 
ter how much cruelty was involved or barbarity perpe- 
trated, all men, from Rome to Edinburgh, from Geneva 
to Boston, were united, or were agreed as to the necessity 
of keeping the Church pure even by the heroic practice 
of beheading or burning. 



2oo uvl\<; QTfttBTtOM 

In tin* light of to-day, impossible seem the theories 
that once prevailed, oven in recent times. The indi- 
vidual was bo nearly at zero, prerogative bo nearly su- 
preme, thai all the rights of the one wore swallowed up 
by the aggressions of the other. Not only marriage — 
the union before heaven of loving hearts— hut eonimun- 
iod with God also, and even the immortality of the soul — 
the hope ami glory of eternal life — were made to depend, 
even in the eighteenth century, by the teaching of some, 
at least, on the intervention and good-will of a bishop I 
Dodwell, a learned theologian of the Established Church, 
taught that " Our souls are naturally mortal, but become 
immortal by baptism if administered by an Kpiseopal 
clergyman. Pagans and unbaptized infants cease to ex- 
ist at death; but Dissenters who have neglected to enter 
the Episcopal fold are kept alive by a special exercise of 
the divine power in order that they may be, after death, 
eternally damned." * 

We cannot think that God lights his paradise as Nero 
lighted his gardens at Borne. Earnesl dissenters have 
had a higher mission than " to be damned for the e^lory 
of (Jod." It has been a part of their heroic work to give 
freedom to the world. 

Yet how servitude clings to us, debases us! Thedeep 
scar of the iron yoke is on our necks. And who can he 
4 - dressed even in a little brief authority " and not play the 
miserable despot? With all our progress, we are still 

ever on the verge of superstition, on the edge of thrall- 

dom. In 1851 a prominent official of the English Gov- 
ernment, in addressing his constituents, said: "Tolera- 

* Lecky'fl " History of England/' vol. i. pp. 94, 05. 



B802TAZ LffiBBTY, 301 

n is thf great corner-stone ol the religions liberi 
<»f this country. Bui do not abuse thai precious word 
'toleration. 1 A> I understand it, it means complete lib- 
erty to all, freedom ol worship among Christians, who 
worship upon the same Foundation/' This is about the 
Bame religious liberty thai was enjoyed under the reign ol 
the royal theologian Henry the Eighth, u Defender of the 

Faith;" about the same that prevailed under the rule ol 

Hildebrand, the mighty pope. 

We thank God for the mighty men who oame as help- 
to our fathers; but while garnishing their bombs, let 
us not kill between the temple and the altar the prophets 
sent to heal the present generation ! We turn to the 
musty utterances of the dead, as if grace were exhausted, 
when we should seek the ever-living Christ. We haunt 
the graveyard of buried divinity, while truth in golden 
floods comes now from the eternal throne of Love. 

We may, perhaps we should, turn from the advocates 
of false doctrines; yet how strange the truth, how true 
the experience, and how undeniable the fact that the 
liberty of the world, all the freedom we < i njoy, comes 
from these hated and persecuted heretics, comes from 
the life and influence of those who died on the cross or 
were burned at the stake ! 

It is painful to follow 7 the long, bitter conflict between 
the person and the State, between the individual soul 
and the ecclesiastical body, or between the disciple and 
the Church. While lust of power bestrode the ages like a 
mighty Colossus, yet there was never perfect peace by 
the submission of the man, by the entire subjugation of 
the individual, to the authority of king and bishop. 



302 LIYIXtr (>CK<T!0\S. 

Ever and anon, through these ages of darkness, there 
was heard some Bhoul of defiance that came as a 
warning to tyrants, or as a message of hope to the en- 
slaved. For, though liberty was defeated on the plains, 

it yet held the citadel of the hills, and dwelt secure amid 
the solemn grandeur of the mountains. God did not leave 
himself without a witness, nor his truth without an 

advocate; so there were prophets, as there had been 
aforetime, whose homes were nearer heaven than the 

palaces of kings — true priests who bowed alone to the 
Almighty in the grand cathedrals of the Alps, the 
Pyrenees, the Highlands; prophets who proclaimed the 
evangel of the rights of man. 

And here let me remind the student of history of the 
special debt that England and the world owe to John 
Calvin for the defense of personal liberty, for light and 
aid in recognizing the rights and value of the individual. 
Never had "the worth and dignity of man,'' of man 
regardless of all save his moral being, been so clearly, 
eloquently, and with such fiery authority presented as by 
the youthful teacher at Geneva, With him no Longer 
was man the cipher, and Church or State the significant 
figure ; but the basis of both, the source of all value 

and power, was "the Christian, elected and called of 

God. Every Buch man is himself a priest, and every 
group of Buch men is a church, self-governing, inde- 
pendent of all save Cod, supreme in its aut hority over all 
matters ecclesiastical and spiritual." 

These chosen ones were equal,- they were called to 
be kings and priests; nay, the humblest might look down 
upon the fleeting glory of the proudest monarch. The 



PERSONAL LIBERTY. 

peasant, as a child of Godj was the peer of the prince, 
and, aa the heir of Heaven, might regard as worthless all 
the Eadingj empty grandeur of the world. 

Calvinism, bo alien to the spirit of these modern 
times, though needed once with all its jarring thunders 
to rouse the dormant, and to blanch the haughty brow 
of the oppressor, is now bo Ear outgrown thai no doubt 
John Calvin himself would to-day in many respects be 
its stout opposer and its sharpest critic; yet no lapse 
of time can dim or lessen the value of what he taught 
concerning the sacredness of the man as a child of GocL 
u It is in this doctrine that the modem world strikes 
its roots. . . . Being called and chosen by the Al- 
mighty, the trader at his counter and the digger in his 
field suddenly rose into equality with the noble and the 
king."* 

The right and duty of man to govern himself; the 
right of self-determination; the right of reason, of con- 
science, and of private judgment to the widest freedom 
— the supreme right to use every gift, power, and 
faculty of soul, body, and spirit without hinderance 
from man, — these claims are ours by divine authority; 
they are indefeasible, universal, inalienable. Yet, as we 
have said, through what darkness and terror, what 
floods of anguish and torrents of blood, have these pre- 
rogatives of our manhood fought their way to conquest ! 
Conquest here — in this favored land; but there is still 
an impending conflict, for over a large part of Christen- 
dom individual liberty is even now a hated heresy to 
be held in check, or destroyed if possible. And this 

* Green's "History of the English People." 



204 LIVING QUE8TI0N8. 

conflict must continue until man ceases to be the proper 
image of God by the toes, the extinction of his Belfbood 
— until he becomes emasculate under oppression, or, 
riving every fetter, breaking every gyve and chain, he 
stands complete and tree in the liberty of the Gospel. 

[fl it not prophetic of ultimate freedom and a coming 
sanctified selfhood, that to man alone in this world is 
given the power of consciousness? Ee alone can real- 
ize. -'This is I, myself! I think; I know; I am: and 
therefore, by God's promise, I know that I shall be." 

A- man alone bears the image of the Eternal, all 
things have an appointed ministry to bless, and save, 
and aid him home. He is no doubt " a prodigal son," 
but both Church and State, instead of crushing and 
Starving, should recognize in the swine-herd, even, a 
prince of the royal line, the King's son, heir-apparent 
to all thrones, dominions, and glories. 

What an evidence of its divine origin does Christian- 
ity present by uniting men as equals, as brethren, with- 
out in the least lessening their manhood by the union, 
— uniting them, not into an indistinguishable mass, but 
blending them in love without the surrender, loss, or 
hurt of any power, right, or gift ! 

The soul is not to be sacrificed in the communion of 
Baint8j for the end of the union is the perfection of in- 
dividual life, — not the glory of the Church, but the 
glory of the child of God. How clearly the Gospel in 
every case recognizes this as first and essential! It be- 
gins its glorious work and continues it evermore by a 
personal call. The appeal of the Saviour is, "Follow 
me;" while the fullness of his blessing is, now as at the 



PERSONAL LIBERTY. 

first, in the personal love and Lead of tin Good shepherd, 
— who oares for the flock, it Lb true, hvA who will leave the 
u ninety and nine " to seek the losi one; and u who call- 
eth his Bheep by name and leadeth them out," thus by 
this personal recognition of love leading the flock. 

But this divine beauty of the Church was soon de- 
raced, this doctrine of personal freedom soon Forgotten 

and long neglected. XOU know that early in the Chris- 
tian era ambitions ecclesiastics seized upon the Forbid- 
den acepter of human authority, wrenching it, as it 

-remed, from tlie hand of the "one Master;" and the 
kingdom that was to win the world by love and truth 
drew the sword to convert, and kindled fires to purify. 
This earthly kingdom* or hierarchy, instead of obeying 
the Lord Jesus, acted the despot over the minds and 
thoughts, the spirits, the consciences, the souls and 
bodies of men. It claimed the right to say what 
should be received as truth, forbidding all individ- 
ual liberty in the exercise of our highest, divinest 
powers. I need not dwell upon the assumptions 
or the bloody sway of this tyrannic power. But we 
should understand wjiat constituted, or may still con- 
.-titute, the great crime of nominal Christianity. It 
was not persecution; not that priests for sixteen hun- 
dred years lighted so many fires of death in the name 
of the Crucified: but it was, that in " His name" 
the Church claimed the right to rob man of himself; 
claimed to be doing God's service in destroying, blot- 
ting out individuality, — selfhood, self-assertion, self-de- 
termination, — and then to make him contented, happy 
in his emasculation; contented while clanking his chains; 



206 



ltvtnq questions. 



contented to have the form, the Bhell of man without 
thought, opinion, i ence or judgment, reason or 

conviction, save as all these were provided for tun by 
the Church; contented with the loss of every jewel that 
I had placed in the crown of his dominion. 

Thai heretics sutl'ereil and were killed, from Boston 

Common to the Golden Horn, from Gibraltar to the 

shores of the Baltic, while sad and terrible, is vet a 

cheering truth — a hopeful gleam in the world's mid- 
night. 

What are often spokm of as the evils of slavery are 
mere incidentals, trifles, only drops in the comprehensive 
ocean of its cursedness. It is not its harshness, nor 
anything pertaining to it, but Slavery itself that is "the 
sum of all villainies." To pet and pamper one, as you 
might a favorite dog, would not lessen the damning 
crime of chatteUzing a man. 

And so the great crime of Rome and all her imitators 
— thecrime of all who exalt dogma, ceremony, system, or 
institution above the Bacred rights of the individual soul 
— is not the persecution of heretics, not the burning of 
stubborn, heroic Christians, the hunting of saints amid 
the Alps and the Highlands. The crime of Rome did not 
culminate in the slaughter of Huguenots, in the cruel 
wars against the brave and sturdy " Beggars of Holland," 
or the terrors of the Inquisition. Neither does the crime 
of the hierarchy — any hierarchy, whether at Rome, 
Geneva, or Chicago — culminate now in trials for heresy, 
trials for honest thought and sincere though independ- 
ent opinion, followed by the lesser or the greater excom- 
munication. \o. But the great evil is a crime against 



PEB80NAL 1 1 in: in v. 

bouIj robbing man of all thai makes him manly — 
of kho» bj which alone be serves and honors God, 

hv which alone life us worth the giving or the living, and 
immortality worth the having. It smites man forever 

with moral marasmus. It reaches out a spectral hand, 

paralyzing all the sources of manhood. Forbidding the 

heart to love, the mind to reason, the will to choose, the 
soul to worship, the spirit to commune with God. What 

robbery, Bublime in its audacitj ! 

( it coarse it claimed, and claims, the right to extirpate 

heresy, hut it claims also t hat those are heretics who do 
not yield all conscience, will, and reason - to its priestly 
dictate-. A- we have said, it wrests from man the God- 
given freedom by which alone lie can be a man. Thai 
is, BO it seems tome; for it is plain to my heart that the 
individual in his endowments, his divine birthright and 
possibilities, is in value and sacredness above all, — above 
system and sacrament, church and temple, king and 
kingdom, bishop and diocese, — and that all things are to 
be means of grace, helps aiding him np and on towards his 
place near the throne and heart of God. But those who 
look at man as less than sacred things, and regard him 
as a means for their support and glory, — who feel that the 
it thing is to save creed and ritual, church and 
temple, — such may easily justify the putting forth of a 
strong hand to stop the thinking, the questioning, the 
reading and judging — in a word, the freedom of all 
uneasy, aspiring minds who might by this dangerous 
course outgrow the creed or find some flaw in the per- 
fection of the infallible Church. Now if man is made 
for the Church, made to save and glorify it, then th 



208 



LIVING QUESTIi 



ad suppressions arc legitimate, and the 

sword, dungeon, and anathema arc right 

oanswerable. 

I know I am nol guilty of over-statement regarding 

the war of the nominal Church against personal liberty; 

and while we should treat with reverent respect the 

sincere devotions of any heart at any altar. Christian or 

pagan, yet the arrogance, egotism, bigotry of any Ohurch, 

;nild, we may, in the name of "the liberty 
wherewith Christ hath set as free/' arraign; yes, and 
condemn, if they are found guilty of trenching upon that 
sacred Freedom. 

A lew more words in a special plea for the individual 
against his oppressoi 

l. What egotism it implies to claim the right to enter 

the wry adytum of the mind, the inner sanctuary of the 
human temple; to come unhidden, and lie in wait for 
thought— to act the spyJ Bow different the Saviour's 
example ! He inters not unbidden. Though we do not 
question his right to enter where neither men nor angels 
may demand admittance; for to these — the greatest and 
the highest- we may say, as they stand at the gate of the 
.-uul, " Draw not nigh hither: put oil' thy shoes; for the 
place whereon thon standest is holy ground." The 
Saviour said, " Behold, J stand at the door and knock; 
if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will 
come in to him and sup with him, and lie with me." If 
the humblest dwelling is a castle that we have the right 
to dose and defend against all intrusion, what shall we 
the sacred privacy of the man himself — the home 

and temple of the soul, so bras our right to keep and 
■uard it against every spy, cmtx thing unwelcome f 



PER80NAL LIBERTY. 209 

B, If tin -it is to us anything sacred, anyt hing our own, 

it must i"' th( ;il gifts of God, the impartatioue of 

the divine nature thai relate ua to him. Foremost of 

all tli- ia the bestowmeni of conscious moral 

being thai enables man to look up in holy love and 
wonder, Baying, u My Father, 1 worship thee!" Now if 
there is anything thai belongs to meas-a right, a right 
the universe is hound to respect, it is the privilege of 
1, my Father: going in the name of tin* 
mo Mediator;" going to him in Borrowor in gladn< 
to him in any place where he lets down the ladder 
of hia £oing to him in any way, by any means that 

he shall hlrss and make the medium of communion and 
salvation. I may find him as I bow beneath St. Peter's 
swelling dome, and I may find him in a log chapel amid 
the forests; for u there is Bel before us an open door that 
no man can shut." A priesl may aid me or a priest 
may hinder me on my way to his mercy-seat; but my 
right to seek that mercy-seal with or without a priest, to 
L r <> alone at the call of God, and to seek it in any Bpot 
beneath the blue cope of the Father's temple, — this is 
mine by every assurance that can be given in creation 
and redemption ! 

3. If I have any absolute personal right, any personal 
freedom, it is to hear and heed the call of Christ, to fol- 
low him as the only Saviour and the "one Master," to 
obey his commands, read his words, do his will and trust 
his promise.-. If there is any place and person to which 
and to whom I have the right to go alone, and may be 
trusted to go alone, and where indeed 1 must go alone, 
it is to the mercy-seat and to the Lord Jesus Christ. 



210 LIVING QUESTIONS 

For as every one of as must give account of himself to 
God, bo in faith, repentance, and devotion no proxy can 
be employed. 

4. To enumerate still further, to continue the ap- 
praisal oi that which belongs to man in fee-simple and 
to his heirs forever, as declared in the original gift and 
confirmed by the New Testament of our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ: we find that man must have the 
right, the liberty, to he true, loyal to his conscience. 

This is a sacred, individual duty, and any one who de- 
prives the Least of the privilege of obeying this divine 
voice is not only guilty of oppressing man, u of Lording it 
over God's heritage," but of robbing him; for the very 
existence as well as the value of all moral service depends 
upon freedom, kk Had I five heads, I would give them all 
BOOner than be false to Christ and conscience," said the 
heroic Luther. 

The right to the free use of our reason in the discovery 
of truth, and the duty to act reasonably, is as evident 
a- the fact of our moral being or our personal entity. 
"Come, let us reason together/" is the appeal of the 
Heavenly Father to all his children. And no worship 
or service can he sincere, can be acceptable to God, that 
is not felt by the worshiper to be reasonable. 

Then there is the right to think for ourselves, to search 
for wisdom, and the consequent obligation of "private 
judgment " in all matters of opinion, of doctrine, and 
of revelation. because of our moral outfit, and because 
we are called to he hel pers, called to labor witli the Lord 
Jesus, there rests upon us the imperative duly to read 
Grod'sWord- to read it for our own instruction and 



PERSONAL LLBBBTT. 21 I 

roh the Scripture inspired of God, u i hat 
is profitable for beaching, tor reproof, tor correction, for 
instruction which is in righteousness: that the man of 
1 may he complete, furnished completely unto ever; 
od work." To u> belong the unsealed treasures of 
divine wisdom. "The Becrei things belong unto the 
Lord our God," said Moses; "hut the things that are 
revealed belong unto us ami to our children forever, that 

we may do all the words of this Law." And tons is 

given also the last ami most previous revelation, the 
Gospel of the Son <>t' God — "the good tidings of great 
joy which shall be to all people.' 1 

By the claims of individuality for which wo plead, 
wo do not mean anything like [shmaelitish separation, or 

independence. It does not imply isolation, but society 
for the sake of a perfected personality. Jt is not the 

severance of ties, but by all means the ennobling, honor- 
ing, and completing of the personality of man that lias 
its foundation in the personality of God, — and that "is 
the steepest, loftiest summit toward which we can move 
in our attainment" It is such a union with the vine that 
the branch cannot wither, but may be fruitful; the vine 
not destroying nor absorbing, but aiding and supporting 
the branch to fulfill its true branch life. It is such a 
union with the State as secures to all men the oppor- 
tunities of a ripened manhood, the government pro- 
tecting all and each in doing every good and seeking 
every blessing and obeying every truth that God lias 
placed before us. It implies that in our union with the 
Church "we are called unto libertv;" and that in "the 
liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free w T e are to 



212 LIVLXG QUESTIONS, 

stand fast." In this union we arc to call no man mas- 
ter, to be DO man's double or echo, no man's servant in 
the of servility, — only in the holy sense of ministry, 

of helping. Ami as we approach the 4i one Father," the 
"one Lord and Master," we are to be made one by 
meeting all apon the level of Christian fellowship. It is 
not the sacrifice of the individual, of the greater tor the 

jer, hut the Church is for the restoration, the round- 
ing into completion, of man, to whom alone — ahove 
priest, or creed, or rite, or system — the promise is given, 
" Because I live ye shall live also." 

In relation to political rights, so rich are our posses- 
sions that we have little to hope for; but in our eccle- 
siastical relations it seems to me we have not attained to 
perfect personal liberty. Even as the children of Puri- 
tan ami Pilgrim, we are yet the heirs of hope instead of 
fruition. As John Milton said in the midst of the 
Struggle for individual freedom, "This iron yoke of 
outward conformity hath left a slavish print upon our 
necks: the ^host of a linen decency still haunts us." 

Is it not true that in reading the Bible, while open- 
in-- it and holding it as Protestants, yet in thought, in 
u private judgment," we are nervously anxious and pain- 
fully careful to shape our judgment precisely according 
to the Church standards; and while we read, do we not 
feel hound to interpret according to the creed, accord- 
ing to established orthodoxy, whether of Oberlin or 
Princeton? Is it not true that, instead of feeling the 
utmost freedom in seeking God, or in following Christ, 
we look around with a kind of fear to see what is 
authorized to see what men or the Church sanction, 



rather than simply, treelj . 

alone in the world, seeking the divine will, aski 
•• Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" Ami yet, why 
imt look ap for direction ju>t b ire alone r 

i t Where i m we look ? Who else has aul I 
(an any hninan power answer tor as when we come to 
be judged \'<>r our stewardship of the truth, and the d< 
we have done? Then we must stand tor ourselves before 
God. 

1 know thai many sincere and uoble men fear that 
such liberty as we hope and plead for would had to 
license, to confusion. Bui can anything be Bafer tor 
men than God's truth? Can anything I r than 

perfect freedom in going to God? Should not every 
harrier be removed, and every priest Btand out of the 
way? Is there a privilege more sacred than the personal 
following of the Lord Jesus Christ? Can we nol with 
safety put the Gospel in every hand and say, "It is 
yours — yours to read, to believe, to obey — freely, wholly 
yours"? If this is not safe, then Protestants are wrong 
and Catholics are right. 

It will be a great day (so it seems to me) for the 
world and for the glory of God when "all things are 
ours" in the building of a divine manhood or person- 
ality, and when it shall be clearly seen that this is the 
great end of the mission and Gospel of Christ; when 
man's purity and perfection shall be recognized as more 
precious than church or temple; when his worth shall 
be above doctrine or dogma: when the Christian 
shall be more than orthodoxy; when priests shall think 
more of saving the soul and honoring the Man than of 



214 IXVIirO QUESTIONS. 

Baying and reverencing all the dead things and dry bones 
of the past, when all sects and all issues Bhall yield to 

Man and boif down to him, and tin* idea of sacrificing 

him to a sect, or of excommunicating him Tor the exer- 
cise of his u private judgment " and Christian libertj 
a seeker after truth and God, Bhall be indeed a crime 

blacker than any heresy. Yes, it will be a brighter day 

than we have yet seen: yet it will come, when every 
Christ-like man shall find the doors of the Church on 
earth like the gates of heaven — open to receive him, not 
because he comes chanting the Credo, hut because lie 
comes as a man and a brother, leaning reverently on the 
arm of the beloved, — because he comes simply as a dis- 
ciple of Jesus the Saviour. 



XL 

Tin: Mission op Affliction. 

"I have Choseo thee in the furnace of affliction."— IMah 

\iviii. 10 

Oub text refers to God's dealings with tin 1 .Jewish 

nation. Ho called them for a special purpose, but his 
treatment of them was according to the common law of 
the moral aniverse. They enjoyed a particular election, 
out experienced the usual discipline of sorrow. Indeed, 
these words do not limit attention to Israel, but pre- 
sent to us a universal principle of the government of 
God. 

Though Abraham and his seed were chosen to be the 
Lord's candle, — chosen as the medium of his special rev- 
elations to the world, — and thereby were exalted and 
blessed, yet they were subject to the same laws of trial 
and growth as mark the divine administration among all 
nations. Not for Israel's sake, not that God is a re- 
specter of persons or nations, were the Jews elected ; 
but "God so loved the world " that he called them, 
bestowing a knowledge of himself and committing to 
them, for all people, his holy oracles. 

Rut our text speaks of a common election. Not only 

Jacob and his children, but all men have been, and 

still are, chosen, whether for some special office or for 

the great salvation, through the tuition and drill of 

215 



216 uviMi Qtrssnom 

affliction. Ajb with nations, BO also with individuals. 
Not only thf king and prophet, but the nam* int 

has Celt the scorching of this fire of God; tor the gift 

and discipline of pain belong to all: not only Jesus, but 
every one is u made perfect through Buffering In 

this common sorrow and chastisement that belong to the 
Fatherhood of God, the Christian often finds a special 
Occasion for thankfulness and praise. How is it with 
us? A- we look over the past, can we say with the 
Psalmist, "It is good for me that I hare been afflicted"? 
Among mankind there is difference of rank, intellect, 
opportunity; difference of form, color, condition. Men 
are divided by countless contrasts and seeming inequali- 
ties; are severed by mountains, seas, rivers, deserts; by 
faith, hopes, and traditions : but there is a universal 
brotherhood of Buffering — all are the children of sor- 
row. Our earth Lfl full of grief; every rood has been 
plowed by the sexton's spade, been sanctiiied or d( 
Crated by tears or blood. There are times when every 
eye tills with sadness ami every heart throbs with an- 
guish. There is no home whose hearthstone has not 
been scattered with ashes of bereavement, or whose halls 
have not echoed with the farewells of departure. Rising 
and setting suns shine through a mist of tears. "The 
whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain." 

" Care has iron crowns for many brows; 

And Calvaries are everywhere, whereoo 

Virtue lfl Crucified, and nails and spears 
Draw iruiltlc-s blood." 

Augustine said, " God had one Son without sin: he 
has none without sorrow." 



THE ¥18810$ OF AFFLICTION 219 

Bui this sni)j. ct lias a pergonal, practical meaning 
and value, ami should prompt to candid Belf-examina- 
tion. The philosophy ol Buffering maybe attractive, 
and some have a morbid delighl in studying the anatomy 

grief. We are ((uii'k in observing the uses of afflic- 
tion to those about ns, and arc quite resigned t<> the 
pain that bores into other hearts, read] with Borne plati- 

tude to give OOmforl — and, so long a8 we arc fat and 

robust, glad to observe that saints and heroes an- made 
of such st u tT as nobly endures. 
Hut how is it when theory becomes experience; 

when we exchange the chair of philosophy for the couch 
of Buffering; when we are the Subject instead of the 
student — no longer holding hut feeling the scalpel? How- 
drossy is the sentimental patronizing of the grief-strick- 
en ! how grand the faith that endures with patience! 
how divine the love that weeps with those that weep ! 

Can we, like Paul, " glory in tribulations"? Or 
do we repine, complain ? Are we fretful, censorious, 
despairing ? Our griefs may be bitter. We may see 
no good reason for them; all may be dark, mysterious: 
yet it is not Christian to complain. Despair is never a 
Christian virtue. 

How evideiit, even to the casual observer, that the 
ministry of affliction is precious, needful for the ripen- 
ing of the heart! "For where, think you, does the 
Heavenly Father hear the tones of deepest love, and 
see on the uplifted face the light of most heart-felt 
gratitude ? Xot where his gifts are most profuse, but 
where they seem most meager. ' Xot within the halls of 
successful ambition, or even the dwellings of unbroken 



218 LJYlMr QUESTIONS. 

domestic peace; but where the outcast. Hying from per- 
secution, kneels in the evening on the rock whereon he 
deeps; at the fresh grave, where, as the earth is opened, 

heaven, in answer, opens too; by the pillow of the 
wasted suiTerrr, where t he sunken eve, denied sleep, eon- 
verses with the silent stars, and the hollow voice enu- 
merates in low prayer the scanty list of comforts, the 
easily remembered blessings, and the shortened tale of 
hopes, denial, almost to a miracle, is the soil of sor- 
row; wherein the smallest seed of love, timely falling, 
becometh a tree, in whose foliage the birds of blessed 
song lodge and sing unceasingly. And the doubts of 
God's goodness — whence are they? Earely from the 
weary and overburdened; but from theoretic students, at 
ease in their closets of meditation, treated themselves 
most gently by that legislation of the universe which 
they criticise with a melancholy so profound." * 

The bitterest cries of complaint come from stately 
homes rather than from the dwellings of the poor; 
while the incense of gratitude rises from stricken hearts 
instead of the hearts of the rich and pampered. 

Men, and women too, whose lives have enriched the 
world, who were moral levers beneath society, lifting 
it to higher, nobler issues, have in this regard left for 
us a good example. They suffered in hope, and, though 
called to trials and fiery sacraments, yet endured with- 
out complaint. Let me quote the glowing words of one 
of these heroic men, the great Apostle to the Gentiles, 
every liber of whose being was instinct with Christian 
courage, and whose heart was redolent of fidelity and 

* "Endeavors after the Christian Life.' 1 James Bffartineaa 



THE MI88I0H OF AFFLICTION, 819 

low. "1 take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in 
necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, tor Christ's 

for when I am weak, then am I Btrong. ,J " Wr 

glory in tribulations also; knowing thai tribulation 
worketh patience, and patience experience, and experi- 
ence hope, ami hope maketh not ashamed." 

Be thus enumerates his manifold trials: " In labors 
more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons 
more frequent, in deaths oft Of the dews five times re- 
ceived I forty Btripes save one. Thrice was I beaten 
with rods, once was I Btoned, thrice I suffered ship- 
wreck, a uighl and a day I have been in the deep; in 
journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, 
in perils by my own countrymen., in perils by the 
heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, 
m perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in 
weariness and painful ness, in watchings often, in hun- 
ger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness." 

And yet he could say, "I reckon that the sufferings 
of this present time are not worthy to be compared with 
the glory which shall be revealed in us." They were 
nothing when thus compared, yet they were neither ac- 
cidental nor useless: " For our light affliction, which is 
but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding 
and eternal weight of glory." " Now no chastening for 
the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; never- 
theless, afterward it yield eth the peaceable fruit of 
righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." 

In these passages the Apostle Paul presents the 
Christian view of affliction. He did not attempt to air 



220 LIVING QUESTIONS. 

his logic or his philosophy, but how like an anchor hid 
hope, how sublime hie faith ! 

To those who walk by Bight what a trial is tins fact of 
trial, and how painful to them must he tins painful dis- 
cipline! I know that faith docs not solve this problem 
of evil, hut it docs sustain the heart by the assurance 
that "Our Father" doeth all things welL It is evident 
that the world is so constructed, and man so related to 
it, that pah) and sorrow mu>t exist. Human life has by 
inevitable law its evils — not sins, but its trials and afflic- 
tions. This has ever been regarded as one of the great 
mysteries of time and of the government of God. 

If God is infinite in power, love, and wisdom; if he is 
our Father, how then does his creation, his family, groan 
and travail in pain? why "pestilence that walketh in 
darkness; and destruction that wasteth at noonday"? 
Why does man enter life with a cry, and depart with a 
groan? The world is full of evil, and we ask. Could not 
God make a habitation for us [vcr from trial and 
misery? Then we are told that "the finite must needs 
he conditioned. Is not pain incidental to t he develop- 
ment of a finite being endowed with freedom?" No 
doubt it is, hut this is no solution of the problem; it is 
merely the statement of another manifest fact of life. 

But our design is, not to form a theory concerning 
evil or affliction, hut if possible to see the presence of 
God in its uses. Better than the philosophic ability to 
answer these questions is the childlike confidence that 
can realize even now goodness and wisdom in many of 
the deepest afflictions that come upon us. Sow much 

more precious than any theory the faith that can assure 



THE 10381011 OF AFFLICTION. 32] 

us that our Borrows are never the result of indifference 
or partiality, bul are in perfect harmony with the Fa- 
therhood of Godl We may not understand the reason 
of our trials, we may no1 be relieved of our u thorn in 
the flesh," though we pray tor Its removal; yet faith is 
better than knowledge, and the "sufficient grace" ol 
our Heavenly Father is better than relief. 

Evil is not the result ol accident Trials, afflictions, 
have a mission —they belongfa the government and order 
of God. As ho declares by his prophet — i€ \ form the 
light, and create darkness; I make peace and create evil; 

I am the Lord that doeth all these things." Wo should 
remember that while sin is an evil, yet all evil is not sin, 
ami this evil Grod can in no wise he said to create. Sin 
does not belong to the divine plan or government, hut is 
a rebel in the cam p, an interpolation in the volume of 
I : but discipline, chastisement, affliction, belong to the 
divine economy, are the legitimate children of grace. 

When the world was created it was not designed to 
be altogether smooth, fair, and bright, rolling forever 
under the hand of infinite softness — one wide Eden 
peopled by perfected spirits. This is not the method 
oi- design of creation. Sin and its effects may have 
been anticipated; but the world was not made fairer than 
it is, for it hears no mark or sign of divine repentance, 
no change of plan appears. Hugh Miller says, "I need 
scarce Bay that the geologist finds no trace in nature of 
that golden age of the world, of which the poets delighted 
to sing." There is nothing in our world, rough as it 
appears, like the blotted, interlined manuscript of an 
author whose first draft of thought is full of imperfec- 



222 LIVING QUES7T0I 

tions, ami is rounded out by emendations, Bhowing how 
the theme has grown Ear beyond hie first conceptions. 
In the perfect thought of creative wisdom the earth 

was made to yield both tare and wheat, rose ami thorn, 

bramble ami fig-tree. It was to be swept by tempests 

a- well as fanned by gentle winds ; to he meadow here 
and upland there, garden now and desert yonder; prai- 
ries unrolled upon their level hase ; while stern, rugged 
mountains were reared as the symbols of the presence 
and the power of God, 

And man, finite, ignorant, with only glorious possi- 
bilities, was placed at the first, as he ever is, at zero, with 
an endless, upward range of scale, lie is to reach ideal 
manhood, to iill the outlines of the divine image, by a 
series of efforts, failures, and painful lessons. That he 
was thus to be educated was no doubt the original in- 
tention. Hence the earth is made a wilderness, hut 
holding in rudimental affluence the promise of paradise. 
It is rich in crude supplies, full of all needed good- — 
not to pamper the idle, but to reward the diligent. 

In the wisdom of God every blessing has its price of 
sacrifice ; for man is completed, not as the acorn grows 
into the oak, not as the cygnet grows into the swan, 
not as the whelp of the thicket grows into the desert 
lion ; but by trial, by the exercise of energy that is orig- 
inal, self-caused, — in choosing the right, choosing life 
and rejecting death and evil. 

All the social, moral, economic, esthetic elements of 
life that enrich and adorn modern society; every latent 
power that has been developed into use and beauty; 
every victory that has been won; every point of excel- 



THE UIJS 1I0H OF AFFLICTION. 

Iciicr gained, has been achieved only because Boughl fop, 
►nized for, died for, u Almost all things are by the 
law id with blood," and there is do remission of 

oppression, of corruption, of weakness, ignorance, pov- 
erty, do gaining of power and glory, without sacrifice, 
u without the shedding of blood/' 

While man is endowed with sublime, moral, intel- 
lectual possibilities, ye1 Gfod leaves him not in the 
sense of abandonment, bul in affectionate wisdom; 

leaves him, that by pain and want, by the pinches of 
poverty, the goadingS of unrest and disappointment, he 
may discover and develop these rudinieiital gifts and 

graces of his being. 

Providence never coddles men or nations; hut like 
the eagle that shakes all BOftness «»ut of the nest that 
her fledged eaglets may he driven to try their wings, 
men who attain to excellence are often the wards of 
hardship, while they learn self-reliance under a stern 
teacher. If we would grasp the noblest prizes of life, 
if we would make true progress, we must pise by tail- 
ing, win by conflict, "work out our own salvation with 
fear and trembling :" first learn even to .-tumble before 
outrunning the wind; through weakness become strong, 
through penury come at last to command the treasures 
of the world. Men have grown and conquered as they 
have been pinched by famine, scourged by frost and 
storms; as they have yearned for light, thirsted for 
truth, hungered for righteousness. 

Would you change this order? Is the world ill- 
made as a school for us? Is it not rather, with all its 
rigor and stern fidelity, a good guide and master to 



224 LIVINQ QUESTIONS. 

bring as to our* -to bring as to the charity, the 

heroism, the ace, the purity that filled the heart 

ami robed in Godlike Bplendor the life of Him win 
our example and <mr hope? Would you change the 
character of this school of trial? Would you have fire 
warm without burning, rocks hard without hurtitig, 
Is float without drownii Would you have 

wishes bo potential that tramps might ride in coaches 
and feasl on Luxuries? Would you have the lazy rich, 
and the reckless Bafe? Would it be hotter, instead of 

a rod for the fool's back and famine for the prodigal, 
disgrace for the knave and Bhame for the coward, that 
the careless have abundance, the dishonest a good char- 
er, and the wicked a good conscience? This might 
be "a Eool's paradise." But it would make our world 
a pauper world, without value or hope/- — the base re- 
siduum of creative folly, instead of the heritage of God, 

filled with his wisdom and prophetic of his coming 

glory. Manhood with its divine graces — this and not 
tiie pleasures of ease or the surfeit of abundance must 
be the purpose of creation. 

" I Bee a youth Whom God has crowned with power, 
And curved [?1 with poverty. Willi bravest heart 

He Btrugglea with his lot, through toilsome years, — 
Kept to his task by daily want of bread, 

And kepi to virtue by Ids daily task. 

Till, gaining manhood in the manly strife, — 

The lire that fills him smitten from a Hint, 

The Btrength that arms him wrested from a fiend, — 

He Btands, at last, a master of himself, 

And, in that grace, a master of hifl kind."* 



* < 



tter Sweet." J. Q, Holland, 



THE MIS8I0JS OF AFFLICTION 

If we look at the mission of trial and affliction, we 
ma] - the resull of general law, thai from Buffering 

and sacrifice spring the purest rirtue, the brightest 
hope, the strongest faith, hence the noblest, truest 
manhood. The analogies of nature are forever present- 
ing this truth. We ma] see it in the fact thai purity 
ami permanence depend upon decay, Agitation, and 
often upon some rending convulsion. Plainly written 
on the rocks is the record of the fierce elemental strife 

from which our earth emerges at last, prepared as a 

dwelling-place for man. By what rugged discipline was 
it converted into a home! Plowed by the crystal om- 
nipotence of the icy mountain and the crawling glacier ; 
furrowed by earthquake and shaken by tempests; the 
floods deluged it, and the tires imprisoned in its heart, 
" breaking their bars, hurled skyward Caucasus. Sinai 
and Ararat, the Alps and the Himalayas, " uplifted the 
continents and made a place for the seas. 

While the world is filled with abundance, yet spon- 
taneous mercies are few and far between : for it is re- 
plete with blessings because full of vicarious suffering 
and sacrifice. The flowers fade that others may bloom 
with fresher, brighter tints. The aged oak falls to per- 
petuate the forest. Winds sweep the world to keep it 
sweet and fair. Storms come down upon the ocean, 
driving it into watery mountains that thunder-strike 
its iron walls, lest it become a deadly pool, breed- 
ing corruption and breathing pestilence upon the 
nations : that it may continue a grand and perfect 
aquarium teeming with life, filled with happiness and 
beauty. 



226 I.IVI\<; QTTESTIOm 

How often do we Bee thai the greatest temporal good 
secured by trial and sacrifice! Columbus had to en- 
counter an ocean of difficulties, as irell as navigate an 
unknown sea, before the New World rose to welcome 
him from the bosom of the deep. And as it was with 
him, bo it is with every successful voyager over this 
sounded sea of time. 

'• Who besl ran suffer, best ran do, ,J says Milton ; 

and this is clearly seen in his own Buffering, heroic tri- 
umphant life. The prophets of God, the leaders and 
reformers of men, like the Great Master, have worn a 
crown of thorns before receiving a crown of life. 

S ds that contain the germs of liberty, peace, prog- 
ress, holiness, love fraternal and divine, are- often 
sown amid battle-smoke, harrowed in by pannon- wheels, 
and watered with human blood. As the gentlesl flow- 
ers arc nurslings of the storm ; as the beautiful drops 
of amber are said to be crystallized tears, bo the angels 
of peace, equality, fraternity are born amid the (dash of 
arms, and nurtured by the blood of patriots and sav- 
iors. Political and religious Freedom has been gained 
at the price of crushed hearts, desolate*] homes, the 
wail of orphans, and fields cumbered with the ghastly 
harvest of the sword. Before the golden corn, the plow 
must break the soil, tear up the verdant sod and crush 
the daisies : bu1 after the plowman comes the reaper 
with his sheaves of precious grain. 

So it is in the moral world -the field of God's hus- 
bandry. Says I te Quincey : " The future is the present 
of God, and to the future it is that he sacrifices the 
human present. Therefore it is that he works by 



TEE MISSION OF AFFLICTION. 221 

thquake ; therefore it is thai he works by grief. 
Oh, deep is the plowing of earthquake ! Oh, deep is the 
plowing of grief ! Bui oftentimes Less would qo1 Buffice 
for tin- agriculture of God. I'pon a niirht of earth- 
quake he builds a thousand years of pleasanl habita- 
tions for man. CTpon the sorrows of an infant he ra 
oftentimes from human intellects glorious vintages that 
could nol else have been. Less than these fierce plow- 
shares would nol have Btirred the stubborn soil." Bui 
after God's plowing whal a luxuriant growth of life, 
love, and beauty Bpringa up; and by and by his angel- 
reapers shall shout the harvest-home ! 

There is no virtue without its cosl of manly struggle; 
no immortal life without death. Faith, hope, patience, 
fidelity, charity, come from the darkness, the dungeon, 
the scaffold. The flames of martyrdom kindled a light, 
not in England only, but in the world, thai ••an never 
be put out. How priceless to us the example of those 
who died for their faith in Christ ! I low sublime their 
love, their devotion to truth ! What an Epiphany they 
present of divine grace! In Buffering was their strength: 
ami here, too, has been the mighty influence of the 
Church. 

The beginning of the martyr age was a "crisis in the 
kingdom of Qod on earth, and. in the history of man- 
kind. If the immediate disciples of the Crucified had 
failed of his spirit, Christ would have diet! and risen in 
vain to the world. But through grace they stood the 
test, ami, humanly Bpeaking, changed the whole history 
ami condition of humanity by the might of suffering. 
. . . Where Christians bled, pagans believed, and every 



228 LIVING Qussnom 

flan "t" persecution became a lamp of faith, 

and its light radiated out from every center of martyr- 
<lnm, until the illumination Bpread over the whole of 
Europe even to the shores of the Frozen seas." 

The maximum in the sublimity and power of Buffering 
love ia seen in Him who may be called u [mmanueloni, 
: with u- Buffering! The full complement of bis 
omnipotence as Sealer and Saviour he drew from Buffer- 
ing. Be was made perfect, he was made almighty, 
through it tor bringing many sons to his elory, and for 
making and Bharing this glory with them," and with the 
Father also. And of him do we receive grace and 
Btrength to Buffer in bis name: to be lifted up. if need 
be, on bis cross, and. what is more, to have his lov- 
ing spirit towards those who hate, despise, and perse- 
cut 

And here let me say, how precious, how redeeming is 
that Christ-like Borrow that is often felt for the w 
and sin of the world ! how precious that deep, unutter- 
able yearning of heart that leads us to bear the vile, the 
wretched, the sinful on a throbbing bosom tenderly, 
lovinglj to God, as a Bister carries a sick child to the 
mother! Not much good can be accomplished without 
anguish. We shall not be reformers, liberators, saviors, 
until we feel something of the pangs of the outcast and 
oppressed. It was the saving power, and hence the glory, 
of Christ, that "he bore our grief 8 and carried our sor- 
rows, taking our infirmities and bearing our sicknesses." 
And what honor be puts upon his followers, what -acred 
fellowship lie bestows, by calling them to Buffer with 
him: even permitting hi- disciples " to till up that which 



THE KZHfiTOK 09 AFFLIi n<>\. 

is lark bifl afflictions," to theglorio ing 

the world ! Instead of Bhunningand complaining, lei as 

oome, "i cheerfully endure, the sufferings of purity, 

the sacrifices of charity, the toils of mio I we 

too may bless, uplift, and redeem. 

Suppose tii« re oould be taken from the world all thai 

me from grief, all that baa been gained by trial 

and pain, by hearts bereaved and broken, all ti: 

com.' from tin' furnace of affliction; and everything 

remain of good th.it has resulted from ease, luxury, 

gayety, gladness, pride and every form of self-gratifica- 

: hew poor, how infinitely poor should we he ! What 

an unbroken waste; nay, what a dismal swamp would 

human life and history present ! There would he no 

L-action <>t' heroism, virtue, or immortal character. 

We should he destitute of all moral grandeur; without 
man as the image of God; without Christ the Saviour; 
without piety, or progress, or faith. Let us not com- 
plain. Holy tears have made moral deserts green; 
blood has enriched all history, sanctified mountains 
and valleys — -and, strangely enough, by it robes de- 
tiled, statute-books and banners black with crime, and 
souls black with sin, have become clean and white as 
snow. 

Now, to educate, to lead up and along the starry 
heights of virtue and holiness, up to the home eternal, 
that we may associate with God as his children, he 
uses all means, temporal and spiritual; not only afflic- 
tions and difficulties, but mountains, rocks and rivers, 
winds and oceans, are the ministers of his grace. Do 
we not read that "He hath determined the bounds of 



230 i.ivixn QUESTIONS. 

human habitation, thai men Bhould seels the Lord"? 
And that we maybe led to seek and find him, "though 
he is rmt Ear from every one of as," is the divine reason 
not only for the rough and trying scenes of life, bui also 
for the mountain-peaks and river-bottoms for all the 
ordinances of heaven and the boundary-lines of the 
nations. *•(). that men would praise the Lord for his 
goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children 
of men V s 

We close with a tew words of application. 

1. God afflicts for our good. CJnder his perfect provi- 
dence sorrows are do< to be regarded as marks of divine 
displeasure. The afflictions of his children are not 
penal, bui disciplinary. When bereavement or dis- 
appointment comes we need not ask, u What have I 
done?" "Ofwhai am I guilty?" But we may repeal 
in hope, "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and 
scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." The fondesi 
motliei-. if wise, often pains and disappoints her child, 
Bhowing as true and tender love in withholding as in 
bestowing. 

u Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be 
joyous, bui grievous; nevertheless afterward it yieldeth 
the peaceable fruit of righteousness." If yon have 
attained to any ripeness or excellence of Christian grace, 

if you arc like precious metal in the Lord's treasury, or 
like fruitful plants in his garden, then yon know the 
truth of this " afterward. " If yon are like the minted 
gold, you have been tried in the furnace. If you are 
like the vine with its purple clusters, or the tree meek 
frith abundant fruit, then the husbandman has caused 



////: vmaiOA OF i /•'/•'/ ft i m\. 231 

you Lure the pruning knife of discipline and the 

purging hand of trial. ••Ho purgeth it that it may 

l »ri 111;- l"»»rtli more fruit . 

The Rev. Richard Cecil, passing one daj through :i 
garden ;it Oxford, < ed with delight a fine pome- 

granate-tree loaded with its scarlet fruit. A- he Looked 
he' was surprised to Bee a deep cut in the body of the 

plant, lie turn* -(I to the gardener, demanding how Buch 
an accident could have happened to the beautiful tree. 

"0 sir," he replied, "that i> not tin- result of accident. 
Thi grew so rapidly, s<» luxuriantly, that it hope 

nothing but leaves; and I was obliged to cu1 it almost 
to the heart before it would produce I'm it." "Ah I" said 
the clergyman, " what a lesson there is here! How often 
in our prosperity we to6 are fruitless! And it La only 
when some sharp affliction strikes as to the heart that 
we bring forth fruit unto fighteousness." 

If we would be rich in Christian graces, we too must 
glory in tribulation. Patience, experience, hope, faith, 
love, and devotion are nurtured and perfected amid 
storms and darkness. In the midst of his royal abun- 
dance, men might doubt the genuineness of dob's good- 
ness and faith. Satan said with a sneer, " Doth Job 
fear God for naught?" But when message after message 
of disaster and havoc came, until, at last, all were 
taken, nothing left except his wife, whose possession 
increased his poverty; when thunderbolt and cyclone, 
sword and flame, left him bereaved and desolate,— then 
how genuine his piety, how sublime his faith ! He fell 
upon the ground and worshiped, uttering that immor- 



232 LI VIM; QUESTIONS, 

tal cry, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken 
away; blessed be the name of the Lord." 

;„\ Not only does consecrated Borrow purify and 
strengthen, fait it may inspire and enlighten. Grief 
that blinds as to earthly objects often gives glorious 
views of God and heaven. The day lias but one sun: 

the night has its thousands. ll<»\v much farther we can 

in the starlit darkness — not earthward, but heaven- 
ward ! The sunshine obscures celestial objects. Bow 
limited our upward vision at midday: at midnight how 
boundless ! So, in the gloom of adversity, worldly things 
are hidden; but heavenly glories are revealed as they 
never could be in the coveted glare of temporal success. 
Thus for our encouragement are the unwritten par- 
ables of nature, and the radiant lives of<iod's chosen 
ones, "chosen in the furnace of affliction. " What a 
crushed flower was Bunyan ! Without the ministry of 
Buffering he could never have filled the world with the 
everlasting sweetness, hope, and instruction that come 
from the Progress of his marvelous Pilgrim. His rare 
visions of the Eternal Home, of the Jasper city shining 
in the light of God, his ecstatic delight in hearing "the 
harpers harping with their harps," his inspiration and 
poetic rapture, could never have been so told, bo enjoyed, 
had he been chosen in a palace instead of a furnace — had 
he not, because of faith and fidelity, "been had home 
to prison." 

:;. Bow kind, loving, ami sympathetic do sorrow and 
bereavement tend to make as ! If one is sick, how gen- 
tle, unselfish, his companions become ! Ami when Death 
enters our circle, how it unites the living ! " It bridj 



77/7-: MISSION OF .1/77 W7T0N. 

the chasms thai divide us, with an arch of sympathy and 
hope" We forge! our creeds, our enmity, our rivalry — 
all but sweel charity and remembered goodness, "The 
chemistries of Borrow bleach out all the colors of our 
poor patchwork of bigotry and selfishness, and we wear 
the same hue, all are brothers in the deep shadow of 
the tomb. " 



XII. 

THE Sam it LB1 A Nl» THE ChUBCH. 

[ Dedication Discom 

"And upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates 
of hell shall not prevail against it." — Matthew \\i. 18, 

We are assembled on an occasion of special interest 
and gladness to this congregation. We have met to 
dedicate this building to the worship of God, devoting 
it to all the sacred osesof the Christian religion. We 
have met to consecrate this edifice to the preaching of 
the Gospel, to the communion of the Holy Spirit, and 
to the fellowship of the saints. 

With humble reverence we devote this house, made 
with feeble hands, to God and man : to the worship of 
our Father and the service of our Brother; to praise and 
help ; to devotion and redemption. 

Noi that these services will render these walls more 
holy, impart to them any special virtue, or bestow upon 
this spol any mystic charm or power. We shall be no 
nearer heaven here than on any island or wave of the 

sea, or any place in the wilderness. We shall have no 
more power with i'<<"\ in prayer here than in forest aisles 
or the silent closet. For the home, the field, the moun- 
tain, the dungeon, the chapel, the cathedral, the desert — 
any place may be to as u the House of God, the Gate oi 

2U 



THE 8ANCTUAB1 AND I'll/-: CHURCH. 236 

Heaven" any place where God .-hall let down the lad- 
der oi hie love, 

:t and needful, for we ought 
to declare in some manner our purpose m erecting Buch 
a building: while we certainly need to ask the Lord to 
accept and sanctify this humble offering to dispraise; 
to pray that here I >ry may be revealed, his truth 

declared, his Gospel freely proclaimed, and his salvation 
from this spol the light of the morning. 

Such a service may well be an occasion For joy as we 
remember that no earthly structure, no building of rarest 
beauty, of massive strength or grandeur, no historic 
hall or storied monument— nor any work of human hands, 
is devoted to so high, so holy a purpose, as even the 
humblest house of prayer. 

And have we not reason to hope that here in the years 
to come will he heard the Gospel of the grace of God ; 
that hearts shall here glow with love, and, through faith, 
"behold the land that IS afar off , and see the King in 
his beauty" ; that here the thoughtless will consider 
and the sinful repent, the sluggish he aroused, and the 
dead raised to life; that here the servants of God shall 
preach with holy zeal, and, inspired by the spirit of the 
Master, 

" Try each art, reprove each dull delay, 
Allure to brighter worlds and lead the way"? 

For, while we may build and preach, all true success must 
come by the favor of God. Vain alike, except for show, 
is the work of architect and of preacher, unless "Our 
Father" gives the increase and bestows the blessing. 
•• Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain 



236 UVlMi QUE87T0NS. 

that build it. . . . Even he, the Lord, shall build the 
temple, and he shall bear the glory/ 1 

he Psalmist and the Prophet said, speaking of the 
Temple at Jerusalem; but how much greater our depend- 
ence "ii divine help iii building that spiritual house 
whose foundation i> the Rock of Ages, and whose living 
walls are immortal I Ii is true, we may be helpers, 
'•workers together with the Lord," hut in submission 
to Him who Bays*, u I will build my church ;" for bis 
relation to the church as its head and master-workman 
belongs to all time. 

In the study of our text and in view of these special 
services, let us consider these three topics: 

1. The use and mission of consecrated places; or, rea- 
sons for the Christian Sanctuary. 

2. The Church, or Spiritual Temple. 

:;. The Perpetuity of the Church of Christ. 

First. The mission or use of the Christian Sanctuary. 
There has ever been a necessity for sacred place.-; not 
because of any limitations in God, not because he is con- 
fined to some sacred spot or holy place, but because of 
our wants and limitations. Bending to human weak- 
ness, Cod in the olden time placed his name and author- 
ized his worship in Bethel, Gilgal, Shiloh, Zion: and 
here patriarchs erected altars and felt that Jehovah drew 

near to bleSS. 

And as in a former dispensation these sacred spots 

were needed, to preserve the knowledge of the Lord, 
their altars being monuments of the frailty of man, of 
the fullness and mercy of the Almighty, bo with us 

there 18 a demand for the place of worship — the Chris- 



7V//; SANCTUARY AND THE CHURCH, 237 

nan altar where we too, with united hearts, maj br 
our gifts and pre.-. 'in on ftcea of loving devotion to 

•;. \\ e si ill need the help of the outward, the ma- 
terial, and no doubi we ever shall until we reach the 

in which no temple n : where we -hall DO 

longer look through "the lattice-work of symbolism," 

hut behold God and the Lamb in the (»j>cn \ ision <»!' 

eternal love. Bui now and here we deed, as means of 

grace, the aid of memory as well as hope. Borne place, 
made sacred by communion with Heaven, that Bhall, 

like "the hill Mi/ar and the land of the Eermonites" to 

the heart of the Psalmist, suggesl to us the tender mer- 

3 Or the special blessine> of God ; sonic place like the 
mountain-top that Abraham called, in his gratitude, 
Jehovah-Jireh, made sacred tons also by the experience 
that " the Lord will provide." 

Not that we need the temple with its massive walls 
and golden roof, its divided assemblies and various 
altars, — not these: not the priest, but the man; not the 
holy place, but the holy life; not the impressive ritual, 
but purity of heart; not clouds of incense, but prayers 
winged by faith; not religion in symbol or form, but in 
spirit and power. We need simply the meeting-place 
for the union and equality of all: not for one to enter 
the most sacred adytum in fear, hut, with Jesus stand- 
ing in the midst, all may come together before the Lord, 
the curtain rent, the wall of partition broken down, no 
longer Jew and Gentile, but all one in Christ. Yes, a 
meeting-place, and there the multitude, — all priests, all 
kings, servants, and brethren, "Parthians, Medes, and 
Elamitcs. the dwellers in Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cap- 



238 LI VI Mi Ql ESTI0N8. 

padocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, 
strangers of Rome, proselytes, Cretes, and Arabians," — 
all brothers now in the perfect fellowship <>f* Christ, 
meeting upon the level as children of the one great 
Father. 

This is the sublime idea of the kingdom of Jesus. 
Blessed brotherhood ! Mountains and rivers no longer 
to divide warring tribes, but wide as Hows the blood of 

Adam, bras sweeps the love of Christ, BO far ami wide 

extends the Christian brotherhood, the family of Godi 

While it is true that Christianity is essentially a life, 
U-n' from a burdensome ceremonial, yet in all dispensa- 
tions Cod has used the outward and material to teach 
his truth and enforce the claims of his love. Among 
our helps to holiness, one of the most common and pre- 
cious is the sanctuary — the place for public worship. To 
the devout Bucb a meeting-place, — be it temple, chapel, 
or cathedral, — by the law of local association, becomes 
deai- and Bacred to the heart. Its holy memories inspire 
as with feelings of love and reverence. Because of this 
principle, the pious may often exclaim, on entering the 
humblest house of prayer: " How amiable are thy taber- 
nacles, Cord of hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even 
Eainteth, Eor the courts of the Lord: my heart and my 
flesh crieth out for the living God." Cue of the incon- 
ceivable attributes of the Almighty is his omnipresence. 
"This knowledge is too wonderful for as; we cannot 
attain unto it." Hence there is ever a tendency to local- 
ize the presence of the Father; and we should remem- 
ber that the expression " Souse of God w is nevei used 
in the Scriptures as conveying the idea of any limitation 



THE 3AH( TUABT AND THE CHUBCH, 

of the power an I "..I. Ii ia nol where tie 

especial!} dwells, bui whei may worship. 

de celebrated English deist, one Sunday 
morning mel a plain countryman evidently on bis waj 
to some church or chapel. u Wliere are you goinj 

Led Collina "To church, sir." "And why go to 
church?" "] go to worship God." " Well, pray," 
Baid the skeptic in a bantering manner, u what sorl ol a 
, do you worship? is he a great or a little God?" 
With the utmosl reverence the man replied, "Osir, la' 
18 BO -Teat that the heaven of heaven- cannot contain 
him, and BO small that he dwells in my heart." 

Yes, he dwells with the humble; the pure in heart 
shall see him; and whether at Samaria, Mecca, Home, or 
Jerusalem, whether amid the highlands of the Eudson 
or the Jordan, those who worship in spirit and in truth 
shall commune with him. 

And because of the principle of suggestion, to which 
We referred, what a blessing, what a means of grace, does 
the place of worship often become ! Whether we are 
able to analyze it, or not, all are familiar with this law of 
the mind. We know that one thought suggests another, 
while any sight or sound that connects us with other 
days will often vividly recall events and emotions long 
past, that otherwise would be forgotten. Let one return, 
after years of absence, to the home of his childhood ! 
How memory will throng the mind with the scenes, the 
hopes and fears and affections, of early life ! What a 
resurrection there will be of buried thoughts and feel- 
ings ! 

How deeply the mind is affected by visiting the 



240 LIVING QUESTIONS* 

historic spots and the storied monuments of the old 
world! hull indeed mturi be the heart thai does no1 
beal with deep emotion on passing through the aifi 
and corridors of Westminster Abbey, where in tomb and 
effigy are preserved the regal splendor, power, and glory 
of England [or almost a thousand years. Here, in this 
imposing temple, is the sculptured history of the widest, 
proudesl empire upon which the sun has ever shone. 
Summoned from their graves by memory, what a proa 
sion of the mighty dead would pass before ue ! Not only 

kings, with crown and scepter, warrior.- mail-clad and 

caparisoned tor battle; bul poets and orators, statesmen 
and reformers, the true, divine nobility in more than 
royal robes, with crowns immortal and scepters mightier 
than a monarch's — swaying not a nation only, but direct- 
ing the energies, the hopes, and shaping the destinies of 
a world. 

Thank God, when the true fathers and founders of 
this Nation opened the door of Aineriea to Christianity 
and liberty, they stepped -Heaven-directed — from the 
shifting sea upon a rock. And who of us could go down 
to Plymouth, stand when' they stood — those dauntless, 
prayerful men — on the doorstep of a new world, a new 
age; stand where they firsi said, " Let us pray/' as they 
bowed before the Almighty; look upon the quainl gar- 
ments they wore, upon the very plates, the dishes, from 
Which they feasted when they "sucked from the abun- 
dance of the seas;" look upon the records they wrote, 
the chairs in which they sat; — whoofuscould look with- 
out dee}) emotion Upon these sacred spots and treasured 

relic 



THE 8AN( TUAR7 AND THE CHUBCK 241 

Aj we have said, all p may be the same to God, — 
hut hoi different to as ! The place marked bj crime, 

by our >n, w here pre found Satan or where 

ire found the 5 mr, what contrasts in their sug( 
t ions ! All localil ies may be alik< d ; l»m there are 

Bpots that, by their history and use, become to as holy 

in.l, where we fee] like taking the Bhoee from off our 
feel as memory kindles the flame of devotion and brii 

■i with vivid reality before our hearts. What 

mu appeals are often made by the Bilenl spire point- 
ing heavenward ! and what holy memories of the dear 
departed, with Bweel assurances of the love and presence 
of tin 1 ever-living, come to as on the deep music of 
Sabbath bells I 

The true dedication of this or any place of worship is 
the work of time. If this house is to you and your chil- 
dren a religious home; if it becomes a blessing because 
of tlit- gracious presence of the Most Eigh, because the 
Gospel is here proclaimed; if by your assembling here 
you are united to Christ; if this building, that represents 
so much zeal, united effort, and sacrifice, is indeed an 
offering to God; if these walls, instead of being walls of 
separation, representing narrow sectarian partitions, shall 
expand t<> shelter and inclose every needy soul — not only 
every one who has named the name of Christ, but the 
least and feeblest who need his tender care; if the poor 
.-hall here find a cordial welcome; and if men are wel- 
comed because of their wants, instead of their wealth; if 
all the outside wraps and distinctions that we must drop 
at the gates of the grave are left there at the door, and 
all enter here on the level of a common manhood, a 



242 UYl\<, QUESTIONS. 

common want of divine help; — then, as the years roll 
away, holy memories and blessed experiences shall hallow 
these walls. This place shall become sacred by the glad- 
ness of hearts here united in marriage; bj tears of be- 
reavement as you pari from your dead, yet cheered by 
thai immortal hope thai binges with golden lighl the 
gloom of the grave; by feasts of joy and foretastes of 
glory; by the bliss of salvation and the communion of 
Baints; — by all of these shall hearts and time truly dedi- 
cate this place of worship, so that to rosy childhood and 
trembling age, to all who come to pray, it shall be felt 
more and more to be " the House of God and the Gate 
of Heaven.* 

A word regarding the outward character of the Chris- 
tian Sanctuary. What sort of a building should we 
erecl and consecrate to God for his worship ? 

Some of yon can remember the first churches thai 
were buill in this part of the State. And you remember 
how extremely plain they were: no ornament, no steeple, 
no taste displayed, no touch of beauty; but as rough, 
plain^ and uncomfortable as the timber of the grand, 
the glorious old oaks and whitewoods that God had 
planted here could be put together. Men did not build 
thus because of their poverty, but because of humility 
and Christian simplicity. All honor to their memory] 
Our fathers worshiped in spirit and in truth, and the 
rude chapel was often filled with the glory of God. Our 
fathers feared idolatry; and in church architecture en- 
tered their protest againsl this sin by going to the ex- 
treme of plainness. 

Bui we should remember that, in the perfect liberty 



THE 8AN0TUAR7 AND THE CHURCH 243 

of the Gospel, we ma; nsean) form ot symbol or cere- 
mony thai brings aa nearer to God and ripens the son! 
for its eternal vocation, We are free to use the divine 
ministry of the beautiful both in nature and art, for ii 
may become to us a precious means of grace. We may 
carve the wood, and cut the stone, and adorn the wall, 

and paint the gla88 until, by the miracles of art, the dead 

seem to breathe and speak. We may have marble walls 

ami ceilings of Vermillion ; nay, had we tie- wealth and 
power, our sanctuaries might he huilded of rarest gems, 
with domes of gold and doors of transparent poind — like 
the walls and irate of the City of God. For he must 
delight in the beautiful. Who can (foul)t ? Think of 
the earth so rich, the sky so resplendent, the universe 
so infinitely glorious ! Look at the heavens, where the 
golden constellations march, with equal step, their eternal 
round ! Look at the oriel windows of the morning and 
evening, painted by the divine hand in sapphire, orange, 
and crimson ! And how the w r alls he has built and 
sculptured in cliff and mountain-side, in lonely canyon 
or by the sounding sea, shame all our feeble hands have 
wrought ! 

But to be a means of grace, fine forms and colors must 
humble our pride or exalt our devotion — they must lead 
us to God; for if they fill us with arrogance or flatter 
our vanity, then all luxuries become a cruel snare and 
delusion ! Better worship in the rudest hut, or on the 
bleak hillside — for when we get low enough we can see 
the stars by day; when humble enough we too, like the 
prophet, may " see the Lord sitting upon his throne, 
and hear the mighty seraphim as they cry: Holy, holy, 



244 tsTtTSQ QUESTIONS. 

1k»1v is the Lord Of hosts; the whole earth is full of his 

glory." 

We are to build for the people; not for the aristoc- 
racy or for the royal family — save as all are princes of 

the family and regal line of the King of kings I Lei 

the church edifice open its doors to the rich and poor 
alike; not so line — nay. not with such blasphemies writ- 
ten on its walls — that only the rich and finical can feel 
at home. Alas ! just here is one of the .special, crying 

Bins of the ( Ihristian world. How many of our fashion- 
able churches are said to he select, arroganl club-houses, 
instead of being gateways to heaven; and how much 

meaner must they look, with all their splendor, than the 
rude log chapels in which our fathers worshiped ! Alas! 
how many church doors look as if they would be closed 
against one who should come bearing his cross in the garb 
of .Jesus of Nazareth ! I sincerely hope this fearful charge 
LS false. We know that pride may flourish in the hut and 
fill the heart that beats beneath ragBJ but nowhere does 
it seem so foul a sin as in the consecrated place of wor- 
ship where we meet in the name of Him who was poor — 
became poor, that we might be eternally rich. 

Enough of the outward, the material ; let us turn, 
secondly, to the Spiritual Building-*- the everlasting, the 
living temple of God. 

" With noiseless slide of stone to stone, 
The mystic church of God has grown. 

Invisible and silent stands 

The temple never made with hands, 

Unheard the voices still and small 
( )f it- unseen confessional." 



THE SANCTUARY AND THE OHUBOH 246 

l. The Builder. 

"Upon this rock 1 will build my Church," said the 
Lord's Christ. And the Prophel said, long before, 

"Even he -hall build the temple of the Lord, and he 
shall hear the glory." 

Here we look not to August ine. Arminius, Calvin, 

Luther, Cranmer, Pox, or Wesley: it is none but Christ. 
There have ever been, and still are, true, zealous work- 
men: but not theirs the responsibility nor the glory, for 

Jesus is Lord and Bead— he alone is Master; while it is 
for u> to Bay, in reverent submission, " What wilt thou 
have me to dor" And, remember, it is not where there 

some grand assemblage, or some imposing edifice, 
that Christ is present; hut where two, or three, or mul- 
titudes are gathered in his name, there is he ever in the 
midst 

8. The Design. 

Why does Christ build the Church? Von may regard 
this as a simple question, easily answered by saying. It 
is for his glory and for the glory of God. True, if we 
do not use these words as they often have been used, to 
imply selfishness, infinite selfishness, as one of the divine 
characteristics. How repugnant such a doctrine of self- 
seeking must be to one who, like Paul, has seen "the 
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the Eace of 
Jesus Christ " ! 

Was there, is there, selfishness in Christ? Surely u he 
was bruised for our iniquities." " He came to seek and 
save the lost/' and to this end he gave himself for us, to 
redeem from sin. 

It has sometimes been sadly true that our teachers of 



205 LIVING QUESTIONS. 

theology have enthroned above what they would hotly 
dethrone below, teaching ue to revere in God what we 
should righteously detest in man. Bach mistakes may 
occur in theology, bni never, I think, in true piety; for, 
whatever the intellect may affirm, the pious heart never 
doubts that "God is Love. M Theology may run wild, 
for <>\\r reason cannol grasp the knowledge of the Infi- 
nite: it is by inspired affection, not bythe devices of Logic, 
that we can know God. 

The heart looks up, and throned above 
We sec in light Eternal Love— 
A God whose glory 'tis to bless, 
Ami not almighty Belfishness. 

The history of the Church of Christ is the great 
historic study; for it is the history of human prog- 
ress and redemption. "The fullness of time," or the 
Saviour's advent, can alone explain to US the relation and 
value of events, is the divine key unlocking the mysteries 
of history and providence. The kingdom of Christ has 
re-trained and guided the nations; for it is above the 
kingdom of kings, above the empire of monarchs; and 
Eewho is its Head is surely directing and molding the 
destiny of the world. 

It is plain that the Church is only an instrument, a 
means,- not built for itself, not an ultimate result. Christ 
came not to build cathedrals, to organize institutions, or 
perpetuate systems as the finality of his mission ; but he 
came to build, to perfect man,— to seek and save the 
lost As the crowning gift of Infinite Love, he came 
for our profit and that we might partake of God's holi- 
nee 



THE SAMTL'AHY AMD THE CHURCH. 247 

The and worth of man ie one of t 

- of the < iospel; for \n< i have often been as 
ptical ' : 1 1 !_r t lie ereatnre as infidel regarding t lie 

ator. Jesus taughl the original truth that the child 

God is more sacred than any institution; that he is to 
be revered above temple, sabbath, church, or kingdom; 
that he is not for them, but they are rightfully to exist 
for him. Tins is the doctrine of Christiap liberty. 

It used to be asked, with a sneer that was Like the 
breath of Tophet, " What arc men good for, save as 
they are used -and used up -for the convenience of kings 
and pi " And for ages nothing was cheaper than 

the bodies and souls of men as they were u like dumb, 
driven cattle" in the shambles of a heartless ambition. 
Bui now, thank God, under the influence and promise 
of the first Christmas song thai from angel lips sounded 
over "the silver-mantled plains of Judea," the ques- 
tion is not, What is man good for? — but, What are gov- 
ernments, and states, and churches worth? What are 
bishops, popes, and kings good for? are they for man — 
aiding, blessing, uplifting, ripening? [f not, they have 
neither value nor sanctity. 

I believe in humility, but not in servility. We should 
not be puffed up; but we are to stand up, and grow up, 
and look up, and climb up, as humility always does. 
The Lord said to the Prophet, " Son of man, stand upon 
thy feet and [ will speak to thee." We do not glorify 
nor serve God by degrading his children: and humility 
is not casting ourselves into the mire, nor making that 
worthless for which Christ died. Sycophancy is not 
piety. 



248 LlYlMi QUESTIONS. 

" Stand lip, man. -land ! 

Free heart, free tongue, free hand, 

Finn foot lipOD the BOd, 

And eyes thai fear but God, — 

WhaleVr yOUT Btate 01 name. 
Let these make good yOUT claim ! 

If there he anything yon want, 
Speak up ! We may reaped a churl— we hate a sycophant." 

Do you sock a solution of tins problem of life? Do 
you ask what the world is for? what the use of cities, 
nations, ami kingdoms? why the Church and its Bac- 
ramenta — Christ and bis cross? We have an answer 

from one who. like the Master, speaks with authority; 
for it is Pan] who tells us thai the object, the end, of 

all — of Church and State, of wisdom, hope, and knowl- 
edge, of every river, wind, and wave, or the hounds of 
human habitation — is that we may come to he perfect 
men— attain a complete manhood, even " unto the meas- 
ure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." 

3. The Character of the Church of Christ. 

There is nothing here cramped or narrow. In the 
spirit of its construction, it is like the blue dome of 
heaven: that is, wide as the world, embracing every land 
and nation under its starry ceiling. The Church, as the 
fruit of Christianity, has a divine fitness for mankind. 
It is not ethnic, but catholic, all tribes and tongues here 
find a home — a home whose welcome and shelter exp) 
the impartial love of the Iniversal Father. 

" We are told," says Dr. 8. A. Brooke, " in one of the 
Btories which charmed our childhood, of a fairy tent thai 
a young prince brought home to his father, hidden in a 



TBS 8A1TCTUAB7 AND mi-: OHUBOH, 249 

walnut-shell, [Infolded in the council-chamber, it grew 
till it canopied the king and his ministers. Taken into 
the court-yard, it filled the space till all the royal house- 
hold Btood beneath its Bhade. Then, when pitched on 
thegreal plain without the city, where all the army was 
encamped, it spread its mighty awning all abroad until 
it gave shelter to a host." 

Bo it is with Christianity. An«l like this Cabled tent, how 
small it was at the ftrsl I The Church began with only 
two— the smallest possible number that can be called a 
congregation. Two ol the disciples of John the Baptist 
heard him speak as he pointed to the Lamb of God, 
•-and they followed Jesus. w One of the two was Andrew, 
and he found his brother Simon Peter and brought him 
to Christ. These two, and then three or four, were at 
first the Church : and so it spread from heart to heart, 
from home to home, sealing the mountains and crossing 
the sea — sweeping on, a wave of light and life, until this 
tent of divine love is as wide as the world. For Christ 
came to build a spiritual temple, in which all the pure — 
yes, all seeking purity, life, wisdom, and the way to God 
— should find a welcome and be united. 

For unity is a special characteristic of the Church. 
The Church of Christ is one. It is not an aggregation 
of united or of opposing sects, but is made up of loving 
hearts who are one in sympathy, hope, and aim by a 
personal union with the living Christ. All descriptions 
of the Church in the Gospel give special prominence to 
its unity. There is "one flock and one Shepherd, one 
body and one temple." This concord agrees with all 
the works of God. Unbroken is the unity of creation. 



250 LIVING QUESTIONS. 

The star that looks down upon us from the measureless 
depths of the sidereal heavens is bound by the same laws 
that govern the pebbles at our feet ; no drop or atom is 
forgotten, but fills its place and office in the harmonious 
whole of Jehovah's empire. 

There is one God, one Saviour, one Mediator ; one 
faith, one hope ; one Master, one Spirit, one Church, 
One Father of all. E Pluribus TJnum is the motto of 
the universe. Unity in variety is the order of God, — 
unity, not dull uniformity, but oneness blending with 
endless diversity, — a oneness of harmony. 

Though the surface of Christianity may be disfigured 
by sects and parties that are often the occasion of sad- 
ness and scandal, yet there are those whom we think 
of only as the followers of the Lord Jesus. We care not, 
we think not, of the clan or section to which they seem to 
belong ; but we rejoice — all rejoice — that they belong to 
God and the world as members of the one body of Christ 
— the common brotherhood of faith and love. And there 
is something sublime in this union and communion of 
heart that neither time nor space can affect, for it is 
the fellowship in Jesus Christ of "the whole family in 
heaven and earth." When one enters into the spirit 
of St. Paul, how the heart reaches out towards the great 
heart of this mighty Apostle, who with ever-increasing 
power pursues his missionary work, comforting and 
establishing the churches, enlarging the hope and deep- 
ening the faith of a world! — Paul, who not only crossed 
the sea to preach the Gospel at Rome, but who has 
crossed the ocean, smiting down partition-walls, shatter- 
ing false gods, rebuking the spirit of sectism, and the 



THE SANCTUARY AND THE CHURCH. 251 

baseless idolatry that puts dogma and ceremony above 
faith, hope, and charity. 

And so it is with all full-orbed Christians. We do not 
think of Luther as a Lutheran, of Wesley as a Metho- 
dist, of Whitefield as a Oalvinist, of Bunyan as a Bap- 
tist, of Howard as an Episcopalian, or of Fenelon as a 
Papist: but we think of these men and hundreds of the 
living and departed as belonging simply to Christ and his 
church universal. And how blessed it would be could we 
always thus forget the carnality of the partisan in the 
charity and communion of the Christian ! 

To this end we need to cherish principles and abandon 
prejudices. We must cultivate the spirit of the Quaker 
who said to Whitefield: "Friend George, I am as thou 
art, laboring to bring all to the knowledge of the Great 
Father; therefore, if thou wilt not quarrel with me about 
my broad brim, I will not quarrel with thee about thy 
gown and bands. Give me thy hand." 

Let us take the motto of Augustine : "In necessary 
things, unity ; in non-essentials, liberty ; in all things, 
charity. " 

Christian unity does not depend upon an absolute 
likeness of all, it does not present a moral Dead Sea of 
complete uniformity ; but, like all harmony and beauty, 
it provides for the blending of the unlike, for the perfect 
accord of the dissimilar. It is like the beauty of the 
human form, with its contrasted powers ; like the music 
of a great organ, it is a blending of differences — not an 
aggregation of similar or identical units. When the 
colors of a rainbow fell into strife, a bright cloud passing 
by said, "Fair colors, why this contention? Know ye 



262 LIVING QUESTIONS, 

not u is the blending that makes the beauty, while one 

sun is parent of ye all P" 

Are not all the good our brethren, if we too belong to 
the family of God P Have we not one Father, one aim, 

one Saviour, one home? Why not forget the trifles 
that divide remembering only the --olden realities that 
must forever unite? The good and noble are mine own 
— the richest heritage I have in time. For there is ;i 

fellowship sweeping beyond all the boundary-lines of 

kith or kin, tribe or nation, binding together in one all 
the children of God. I )o such men as Latimer, Hooker, 
Stillingfleet, Whately. Stanley, Eangsley, Robertson, be- 
long <>nly to the Anglican Church? And can Ball, 
Williams, Poster, Wayland, Judson, Spurgeon, sit alone 

in close communion as Baptists? Can sectarian walls 
separate us from Wesley, Whitetield. Fox. and Barclay? 

Or from such Unitarians as Castellio, the first avowed 
champion in modern times of perfect religious liberty; 
John Milton, John Locke; John Pounds, the Portsmouth 
cobbler, whose leathern apron I would rather see than 
any embroidered cassock? No, we cannot be separated 
from such men if we belong to Christ. 

Lastly. A word upon the perpetuity, the enduring 
character, of the Church of Christ. Sure and relentless 
is the law of mutation and decay. "The world passeth 
away, and the lusts thereof." JIow plainly do all our 
Burroundings declare that human life and glory are like 
the grass and the dower! 

" Cities roar through ages with the din of trade. 91 
They rule, they conquer, and they pass away. 



THE 8AN0TUABJ AND rill-: CHURCH. 253 

•• in iin n d des< rl molden Babj Ion, 
And the \\ lid wrpent'a hi 
Echoes in Petra'e palaces of Btone, 
And waste Persepolifi 

Jerusalem is trodden down of the Gentiles, and the glory 
of Zion departed. 

We live in a new age, we have entered a new world; 
and one how different from thai into which the apostles 
were Ben! to preach the Gospel ! What discoveries has 
modern enterprise made ! What treasures the earth has 
yielded ! What glories the heavens have disclosed ! 
What gigantic forces have been grasped by the hand of 
man ! To-day we almosl realize the vision of " no more 

sea." For steam has bridged th •••an; the lightning 

dot's our bidding— wecan " pul a girdle round aboul the 
earth in forty minutes." Space is annihilated and Time 
outrun. We can send our messages around the world 
swifter than rolls the chariot of the sun, so that we 
must patiently wait for the slow-revolving wheels of 
Time. 

Amid these changes and revolutions we may well ask, 
Is Christ and his Church, is Christianity, subject to this 
law of change, of mutation and decay? Is the Gospel 
simply one of many provisional, temporary systems, 
destined for a time to aid and bless, then to pass away 
forever? 

[s Christ as Teacher and Saviour large enough, true 
enough, strong and wise enough, for this larger, wider, 
wiser age and world? Is the Gospel still a living foun- 
tain, refreshing the desert with the water of salvation ? 
Or a reservoir, useful for a time, but soon exhausted? 



254 uvnro QUESTIONS 

I- Christianity an everlasting necessity and an infin 
endless supply ; or has it Fulfilled its temporal mission? 
Mum the world, appealing to Jesus in its agony for the 
presence of the divine, for hope of the immortal, cry 
out as did John from his prison, "Art thou be that 
should come, or do we look for another?" Borne tell us 
Christianity must soon cease to be a power, must become 
historic, obsolete. But how often has this prediction 
been repeated during these fifteen hundred years ! Set 
while countless systems of the wise and mighty have 
vanished; while nations have risen, conquered, and been 
forgotten,— yet "the silver cord of the Bible is not 
loosed, nor its golden bowl broken, as Time chronicles 
his tens of centuries passed by. ,J The Gospel fail! It 
has been well said. u What is true never fails. Religion 
is permanent in the race: Christianity everlasting as 
God. These can never perish, either by the treachery 
of their defenders or by the violence of their fot 

There are some things that never grow old or decay, 
but instead they gather strength and beauty from the 
passing years. "This Gospel is old !" enes some egotist, 
some rootless radical. Yes. it is older than any govern- 
ment or institution of our enlightened world, [t carries 
the mind back to the time when the Roman eagles 
glanced in the sun, and the city of seven hills Bat supreme 
among the nation-. 

But who can tell us the age of virtue, heroism, charity, 

truth, honesty, fidelity, the hope of heaven, and the 

charms of holiness? Have these lost any tint of beauty 
or fiber of power? Are they not as fresh and fair to-day 



THE SANOTUABI AND rill-: OHUBOK 256 

as when they crowned with glory the patriarchs and 
prophets who lived in the morning hour* of time? 

Old! So are the Alps: yei they stand to-day Bolid 
and faultless, marking the Blow-revolving nons of g 

ime. " I >n a throne of rocks, in a robe of ••loud-, 
with a diadem of snow," long has Sionl Blanc been 
"crowned monarch of mountains;" while his robe is as 
royal and his crown as sparkling as when, in the old war 
of the giants, the sons of Terra and Tartarus, this 

mountain monarch was lifted and poised upon the 
foundations of a continent. 

( fld ! See, and bo i< the thunder of Niagara. Yet the 
rainbows are as bright, as beautiful, as when the Bun- 
beams firs! Bung them as a scarf upon her cloudy 
shoulders. 

And who can tell us how long the chariot of yonder 
sun has rolled through the sapphire skies? — how long 
his braided rays of blue and green, yellow and crimson, 
have wrapped the earth in a garment of spotless glory — 
a robe of life and beauty? Yet he comes without fault 
of line or loss of moment at the voice of the day-spring, 
not a ray of splendor less, undimmed by millenniums; — 
bright symbol, perpetual, glorious parable, of the full- 
ness, fidelity, and omnipotence of the God and Father 
of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Love isoH as creation — love that builds and guards the 
home; yet bridal bells ring as merry a peal as ever, for 
time leaves no mark of decay or death on that immortal 
affection, that still, as at the first, binds with a flowery 
chain hearts and destinies in one. Worship, faith, and 
heaven-born charity — are not these as precious now as 



366 LIVING QUESTIONS 

when the world'.- gray fathers walked and talked with 

God? 

We are Burrounded by the transient, but there is also 
the permanent The Footprints of God in our world are 

deeper than the pillars of the nioim tains. " Heaven and 
earth may pass away, hut my word shall not pass away," 
Saviour. The stone tables on which the Deca- 
logue was written have long ago dissolved into dust, and 
been scattered every whither by the winds of the desert; 
the red granite of Sinai may crumble, and the place 
where Btands the Mount of God become a plain, — but the 
word and law of Jehovah endureth forever. 

Can this Gospe] of Christ, this Good News of our 
Father in heaven, ever lose its value? Is not the Chris- 
tianity of Christ forever written upon the heart? Do 
not its principles belong to the absolute, the eternal? 
We can If we will just see this; for no matter how high 
we rise, how sublime our flight, still the Star of Bethle- 
hem and the song of the angels will shine and sound 
above us. Can we rise so high that love — love to God 
and love to man — shall cease to he a duty? Can we get 
beyond the infinite, — beyond our need of the mercy and 
the providence of God ? 

O weak, vain man, Btrong only in your folly and pre- 
sumption ! Come. I pray you, let us read and hear 
anew the loving words of Christ, and Bee if any flight of 

human wisdom, or grasp of human power, or soaring 
excellence of genius, can place us above the light and 

life of Him who has declared to us the absolute in morals, 
and the perfect, the tinal, in religion. 

Man's works must decay. Creeds shall he forgotten, 



'/•///•: 8ANCTUAR7 AND THE CHURCK 257 

opinions change, ritual and dogma be whistled down 
the wind, l >u t the Gospel is everlasting: its type of char- 
acter Lb perfect, its demands and principles belong to 
the eternal order of the moral univera ■ Bo long as man 

is man, and God ia God, there mnsl be the laiih, hop'-, 
charity, the penitence and reverence, the brotherhood 
and Divine Fatherhood of the I tospel. 

[ta promises belt the future with bows of hope and 

its power shall deepen and widen until Jesus shall reign 
supreme; Tor there is "given him dominion, and glory, 
and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages 
shall Berve him; his dominion is everlasting, and his 
kingdom shall not be destroyed." 

And the Church of Christ, that, as we have said, 
stands to-day the oldest institution of the civilized world; 
thai in its history carries the mind hack to the time 
when Athens was in her glory, when Mount Zion was 
still the beauty of the whole earth, and Rome at the 
zenith of her power, — " when the smoke of sacrifice rose 
from the Pantheon, and lions and tigers bounded in the 
Flavian amphitheater," — this Building of God, that has 
i the rise and fall of so much earthly glory, shall 
remain unwasted by time, till the sea shall vanish and 
the mountains melt. 

The outlook is hopeful. The days are rolling on 
when the glad shouts of the isles shall swell the thunder 
of the continents; when the Thames, the Danube, the 
Tiber, and the Rhine shall call upon the Euphrates, the 
Ganges, and the Nile; and the loud concert shall be 
joined by the Hudson, the Mississippi, and the Amazon, 



268 I.I VI Mi QUESTIONS. 

Baying, with one voice ami one heart, "Alleluia, the 
\,nw\ ( tod Omnipotent reigneth !" 

We close, as ire began, by offering this house ac 
expression of our love and devotion to God, and to his 
Son onr Saviour. We dedicate this building to the wor- 
ship of Onr Father, to the communion of the Boly 

Spirit, and to JeSUS, the Mediator of the New ( ovenant. 

We would consecrate this house to the uses of the 
Christian religion, — to the preaching of the Gospel of 
Christ, to the memory of his life, his tears and mercy, 
his death and resurrection. 

We consecrate these walls to Christian unity and per- 
fect liberty, to prayer and praise, confession and charity. 

Lord, accept this offering of our feeble hands, of our 
loving hearts. Be this thy house. Place here thy 
name. Make this place a means of grace and salvation 
to us, to our children, and to all who shall enter these 
hnmble courts. 

Bless this pulpit, that thy servants may here declare 
the whole precious counsel of God; and bless these pews, 
that thy children may take heed how they hear. 

<> Thou that dwellest not in temples made with hands, 
hut with the humble and the contrite, make this place 
to us and to all holy ground, — a Christian altar, where 
we may worship thee in spirit and in truth! 

Make this place "the House of Cod and the Gate of 
Heaven," in the name of the Father, and of the Son, 
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 



XIII. 

"Survival OF THE FITTEST ;" 
OBj 

Tin: Temporal and the Kh.knal. 

" And the world paneth away, and the lust thereof: bu! he thai 
doeth the will of God abideth forever."— 1 John ii. 17. 

We know that we are surrounded by the transitory. 
We believe there is also the permanent — the eternal. The 

world and its fashion are passing away ; for all that we 
see, hear, feel, of this material order and beauty must 
change and vanish. The earth itself is a vast necrop- 
olis. The hills, ledges, and mountains are mausoleums ; 
while plains, continents, the pavement of the seas, the 
crust of the globe, are composed of the dust of the count- 
less tribes and dateless generations of the kingdom of life. 
The vast elevated plateau reaching across the Atlantic, 
along which was laid the electric cable, is partly, perhaps 
entirely, formed of minute, beautiful shells. The home of 
these animalculae, while living, was in the upper regions 
of the ocean ; when they died, their shells became their 
coffins, and the bottom of the sea their grave. These 
little shells have formed, and are still enlarging, a moun- 
tain table-land, stretching from shore to shore for two 
thousand miles. What numbers, what generations of 
life, what a reign of death, does this imply ! 

Says Dr. Guthrie : " To account for this phenomenon 

250 



260 li vim; QUE8TI0m 

it ; sin to suppose that these bright shells are fell- 

ing in Bhowers by night and day, through seed-time and 
harvest ; dropping down into their graves in numbers 
• many as the drops of the summer rain or the snow-flakes 

of a winter storm." 

" Where is the dust that has not been alive ?" 

'• All that tread 
The globe are but a handful to the tribes 
That dumber in its bosom." 

The building of this vast submarine table-land across 

the ocean is but a repetition of the silent agencies that 
have given to the continents the possibilities of gardens ; 

while coral reefs, chalk cliffs, mountains of lime and 
marble, and indeed our valleys, hills, and prairies, pro- 
claim the universal and long-continued reign of death. 
Ye-, we know there is the frail, mutable, dying; that 

we ourselves, with all the tribes that to-day are crowding 

the avenues of life, are like the morning dew, like the 
vanishing vapor. 

But is this sad thanatopsis the sum, the conclusion, 
of all ? " The world passel h away, and the lust thereof." 
[s this the sea-mark of our utmost sail, or is there hope 
of the enduring — is there assurance of the changeless, 
the eternal ? 

One wi8€ in both human and divine wisdom answers 
for US : " We look Qot at the things which are seen, but 
at the things which are not seen: for the things which are 

en are temporal; hut the things which are not seen are 

eternal." u The world pa88eth awa\ . and the lust thereof: 
hut he that doeth the will of Gk>d ahideth forever." 

This is not onl\ divine j»r<>mi>e hut divine philosophy. 



9USV7VAI OP ////•: nil 

And seine ot Our L'lra! apOStlefi of human \\i>d<>m, 

standing aeither on Sinai nor Zion, but on the sublime 
heights of science, which is also a mountain of God, 

\ery clearly the truth of Paul'- VI I he Duke 

of Axgyle: "The deeper we go in science the more cer- 
tain it becomes thai all the realities of nature are in the 
region of the invisible, so thai it is literally true thai 
the things Been are temporal, and it is only the thii 
not Been thai are eternal." 

Manv of the mo>t powerful ami enduring forces aboul 
us, that mold and sway like Omnipotence, are still be- 
yond tlu' reaeh of our Benses. We Bee their effects, their 
marvelous power j bul they elude the quic lar, the 

most delicate touch, the Bharpesl eye. By no trap can 
we catch them, by no contrivance hold them, by no tesl 
of subtilest art unmask them. 

We know nothing of life, except as it is revealed 
through material organisms; for it is invisible, intangi- 
ble: yet, we are confident, life is not the result of organ- 
ization, but is, instead, the ctuise. It is in the unseen 
that wonder-working power resides, — the viewless spirit 
is more than flesh. 

This body of mine, "so fearfully and wonderfully 
made," is not the source or parent of my life, my soul. 
This is visible, that invisible; hence this is temporal, 
that immortal. But aside from this conclusion, we 
know that every seed has its own individual life-germ, 
and that every life or soul forms its own body; all living 
forms being the outgrowth of a vital principle that is 
ever shaping its manifestations so as to fulfill its mission. 

Bodies — living bodies — are not built mechanically like 



262 tlVJOrO QUESTIONS, 

tenement-houses ; neither vegetable, animal, nor human 
bodies are buiH for their tenants, bui by them. Our 
bodies are do! made, completed, furnished, garnished, 

and then a hill put ou the front with the inviting legend, 

" House to lei." 

" Everywhere organism is the creation, the result, of 

life. — the expression of its instincts and affections. w If 
any effort of man has failed, utterly failed, in the fae< 

determined persistence, it is the long-continued endeavor 

"to get the living out of the dead," to establish the fact 
of "spontaneous generation. " If modern research has 

proved anything, it is the doctrine of Biogenesis, or that 
life can come only from life. 

Hut it is equally true thai there can be no spontaneous 

organization, no organic body can be formed, without 
being the expression and result of vitality. " Life is 
the cause of form in organisms," said Aristotle; and no 
modern philosopher lias improved upon this, or given a 
more complete definition. It is not the swine's body 
that gives its nature to the hog, nor the canine body 

that makes the dog; but it is the specific swinish and 
canine life that forms and adapts their bodies. 

It is not the human body that makes the man, but 
the spirit within that builds him into a temple or a 
prison, a palace for a king or a hovel for a tramp. 

This fad , that life is not mechanical, that it is superior 
to organism : that the relation of the soul to the body is 
not u like the relation of harmony to the bar]), but like 
that of the harper to the music of his harp;" the fact that 
even science plainly confirms Paul's doctrine. — is full 
of hope and L r "<'d cheer. For, just now. dark and sweep- 



9USV1 VA1 OP Tin: VTTTBST." 

ing are the floods of materialism. Bow often are we as- 
sured by ita advocates that all we have, all we are rare 
of, i> the seen ! Look al what they offer as: — 

Nature, matter, force, — no more beyond ; or if per- 
chance there is, it can be nothing to as, tqi all beyond 
is unknowable, unattainable, — has not been, and cannot 
he, revealed. 'This tangible environment is all. We 
cannot climb the cliffs ol love and faith, the mountains 

of hope, and look away to the promised land, glistening 
with the glory of I tod. There are no - upper countries"' 

without night; hut all belong to the "Bad Lands" of 
grief and disappointment. There is nature without the 

supernatural, there IS a body without a soul, here with- 
out a hereafter, an earth without heaven, time without 
eternity, a world without Gtod I 

Our materialists are telling US that mind is only a 
form of matter, — one of its forms; for it "has two sets of 
properties, or two sides," though always one substance — 
and this is the only substance : nature is all, final. 
There is for us the material universe and nothing more. 
Hence we are without God and without hope. 

So says materialism, or, plainly, atheism. But even a 
Godless soul may have its visions, not of hope, when 
"the all is the cold, iron mask of a formless eternity." 
Perhaps you remember Jean Paul Richter's dream. 

As he tells it, he fell asleep in a churchyard, and he 
)w the dead gathered about the Saviour, and they 
cried out, ' Christ ! is there no God V He answered, 
( There is none/ No; I went through the worlds, I 
mounted into the suns, I flew with the Galaxies through 
the wastes of heaven: but there is no God ! I descended 



-jr.i Linxa QUESTTOir& 

far Bfl 1 > i * i ii.lt casts its shadow, looked down into the abyss, 

and cried, 'Father, where art thou?' Hut 1 heard 
only the everlasting storm which no one guides, and the 
gleaming rainbow of creation bang, without a sun that 

made it. over the abyss. And when I looked up to the 

immeasurable world for the Divine Eye, the eve glared 
upon me with an empty, black, bottomless eye-socket, 
and Eternity lay upon Chaos, devouring it and ruminat- 
ing it. . . . 

"The pale-grown shadows flitted away and all was 
void. Oh, then came, fearful for the heart, the dead 
children, who had been awakened in the churchyard, 
into the temple, and cast themselves before the high 
form on the altar, and said, f Jesus, have we no Father ?' 
And he answered, with streaming tears, * We are all 
orphan.-: we are without a Father/ 

"And as Christ saw the grinding press of worlds, the 
torch-dance of celestial wild-tires ami the c<>ral-banks of 
beating hearts; and as he saw how world after world 

shook ofl its glimmering souls upon the sea of death, he 
raised his eyefi towards the Nothingness and towards t In* 
void [mmensity, and said, ' Dead, dumb Nothingnese 
c<»ld, everlasting Necessity! frantic Chance !— when will 
ye crush the universe in pieces, and me? (> Father, <> 
Father ! where is thine infinite bosom, that I might resi 
on it ? ' Bui we have no Father: we are all orphans. 

"When I awoke." >ays the dreamer. " 1 wept for joy 
that I could still pray to God, that I could reach out to 
the Infinite Father." 

Who would dream — or live — this terrible dream of 
atheism? 



9V&V1VA1 OP mi-: rm 

Bu1 to return. There ifl nothing, we are told, exoepl 
matter with its two sides yel one substance. Hut do we 
no1 know there is tho invisible, spiritual? If then 
any knowledge, do we no! know that the essential prop- 
erties of matter, as form, oolor, inertia, eta, are no1 the 
iit in 1 properties of mind? Can we describe the one 
as we do the other? Are nol powers that are mightiest, 
— thai erlasting,— invisible, immaterial? Can the 

thoughtful chemist classify ideas and place them in his 
catalogue of Bimplesand compounds? Xel u ideas may 
break up nationalities, re-arrange races of men, and 
revolutionize the world." 

since that ever-memorable night when the wife of the 
Arabian Prophet, kneeling at his side, said, " Moham- 
med, I will be thy first believer ! There is but one God, 
and thou art his prophet, " — since that time, nine thou- 
sand millions have lived and died in the faith of Islam. 
And we should remember that the genius of Moham- 
medanism did not, as we were long taught, perch on the 
hilt of the sword, making that the open secret and the 
symbol of its power, the cause of its wide and rapid con- 
quests. Xo; its power was a sublime dogma, an eternal 
truth — " There is but one God." Mohammed's solemn 
Allah akbar touched and thrilled the religious heart of 
the Orient, and this was the power that shook a thousand 
idols into dust. 

" There is but one (rod, and Mohammed is his prophet." 
What kind of " matter " is this dogma? Is it an acid or an 
alkali; sulphur, iron, gold, or carbon? Yet this viewless, 
intangible thought that no scales can weigh, no chemist 
analyze, no hand grasp, but which mind can receive and 



266 Livixn QUE87T0NS. 

pass on from hearl to heart, round the world and down 
tin* ages, -this dogma "sent a quivering thrill through 
the s«>uls of men, from the Gulf of Guinea to the Chin 
9 l The old world rocked on its foundations under its 
power. " Empires and religions, grand and venerable, 
melted away before the influence of a thought, the force 
of an idea. 

I low liable we are to be misled in our estimates of 
power and value ! "Things present " often deceive and 
separate us from the truth. Silver, gold, coal, iron, 
steam, — these are not forces; though we think them 
demigods, they are inert until touched by the invisible. 
But an idea can shake nations, can govern the world. 

[ know it is common to regard the material, the out- 
ward, as the real, the permanent : while tEought, justice, 
truth, love, virtue, — these, are abstractions, fleeting and 
shadowy. Houses, farms, ships, hanks, railroads,— ah ! 
these are solid Eacts, real estate; here is no cloudy faith, 
nothing ghostly: but knowledge, sight: no uncertain 
hope, but fruition! 

Yet we may he deceived when we are most certain. 
That which creates and governs is superior. He who 
builds is greater than the building. The Scriptures tell 
us, " lie that hath budded the house hath more honor 
than the house," and " He that built all things is God." 
"Through faith we understand that the things which are 

seen were not made out of the things whieh do appear. ,J 

And this faith corresponds with the ripest deductions of 
reverent science; tor it is certain that all nature isthe 
expression of the spiritual, the invisible. 

•• In the beginning, God . . ." All we see Ts the effect 






9UBVZVAZ OF THE V7TTE8T." 207 

. wielded by an unseen hand, producing the 
most perfect harmony and adjustment. 

[a it ma true that every creation ie first a thought, 
an idea, before it is a thing? A steam-engine U first 
built and run in the brain of the inventor. A steam- 
ship is first a thought, and when given to the sea is the 
thought dressed in oak, iron, brass, and steeL 

So everywhere things embody thought, do its bidding, 
express it- wisdom, from a boy's whistle to the sublime 
geometry of the heavens; from a child's cob-house to 
St. Peter's at Borne. It was a loving thought of the 
Almighty that changed chaos into order; "that gathered 
the earth itself into a lonely drop of fire from the red 
rim of the driving sun-wneel ;" that filled it with treas- 
ures and garnished it with beauty. u Nature is the 
language and imagery of divine ideas. A Persian poet 
tells us, 'The world is a bud from the bower of God's 
beauty; the sun is a spark from the light of his wisdom; 
the sky is a bubble on the sea of his power.' The real, 
as you say, — that is, the material, — rests ever on the 
spiritual, on the invisible, causal force of the Eternal 
One. 

Our senses mislead us sometimes. The firm, stable, 
reliable, are not the visible. But men say, " Give us 
something we can rest on; away with shadows, ideals, 
abstractions ! Let us feel the solid ground !" Yes, you 
feel the ground and call it substantial. But you do not 
feel that which makes it firm and solid. You stand, 
"you tread on an invisible, subtle force. For what 
makes the earth so compact" — the rock so hard, the 
mountain so permanent ? It is not mica, hornblende, 



268 LIVING QUESTIONS 

quartz, aor felspar; no element of chemistry or miner- 
alogy. Bui the ground is solid, and the rock hard, be- 
causeof invisible cohesion and gravitation. Withdraw 
these nnseen force-, and the firm-set earth would dis- 
Bolve, crumble, become a mist, yielding as a cloud, un- 
substantial as vapor. We might as well attempt to pi 
from hill to hill upon the rainbow arch that spans the 
valley, as to stand upon the ground or climb the moun- 
tain, if devoid of the invisible, — in the absence of intan- 
gible, imponderable power. With every step "we tread 
upon and are upheld by abstract principles/' Space is 
bridged and our steps are Bafe because of viewless omnip- 
otence: we walk amid the stars and d well securely be- 
cause of the unseen — we are upheld by the hand of 
mighty but invisible Love. 

Indeed, science, by its surprising advances, has dis- 
covered a chemical element, a material simple, until 

ently unknown; yet so common and essential that 
the existence and stability of the entire organic world 
depend on its universal distribution. Still, it can neither 
be .-ecu. heard, smelt, tasted, nor touched. We live in 
the midst of it: life depends upon it — all life, vegetable 
and animal. It is a sleepless sentinel, a perpetual 
guardian. If it should be removed, our globe would 
instantly be wrapped in a boundless flood of fire. The 
means would explode, and the mountains melt. Yet 
forages men have lived in this invisible, conservative 
element, unconscious of its properties, of its existence.* 

Prom these hints and suggestions we may well deny 

* Nitrogen, thai forms about four fifths of the atmosphere. 
First observed by Dr. Rutherford in 1; , 



n:\iVM. OF TEE FITTB8T." 369 

thai what we call Nature includes all being; while we 
are justified in listening to the roice of our own hearts, 
to the conjectures of science, and to the Word ol I tod re- 
garding an "unseen universe" in which we hope, and 
to which we Bhould l<>ok rather than to the visible and 
temporal. 

Everywhere in nature we may observe that that which 

builds, conser ovenis, is nol the -ecu, bul theun- 

Am(1 human history under the providence of 

[, by whom arc all things, presents to us the same 
truth. Among men, in cities, empires, it is not the 

ward that survives, not the material that saves, that 
makes rich and strong; hut always ideas ami princi- 
ples, virtue and holiness, — always the spiritual The 
power and life of a nation are not in ma8sive walls, in 
fortresses like mountains, in armies COUntlessafi the sand 8, 
hut in moral worth, in patriotism, truth, fidelity, purity, 
righteousness, — these virtues give stability and power; 
while without them the defenses of Babvlon, the walls 
of Tyre, the hosts of Xerxes give no promise of security. 
All the annals of the past, all the chronicles of kings, 
teach the one lesson that "the things that are seen are 
temporal;" it is the ideal, the spiritual, that survives. 

"The world passeth away, and the lust thereof." 
Mutation is stamped upon the material power and 
grandeur of the world. All flesh is like grass, and 
earthly gloiy like its flower. Beyond all that is written 
on tablet or parchment-roll, beyond all the antiquarian 
has deciphered on tomb and monument, what a record 
still the globe contains of tribes unknown, of nations 
without a history, and cities without a name ! 



270 LIVING QUESTIONS. 

America, the New World, is yet a haunted continent, 
filled with spectral shadows, and a whisper runs from 
sea to sea that tells of ancient nations, of mighty peo- 
ples, that dwelt here in more than Oriental splendor. 

The seen is temporal. All that we now behold of 
beauty and strength — the works of genius, the pride of 
nations, — though appearing firm as the hills and ever- 
lasting as the mountains, shall' crumble into dust, and 
be driven by the vagrant winds everywhither. 

As we asked at the beginning of our discourse, Is 
this the sum of human life, the dusty fruition of our 
hope ? Is there no outlook beyond this wide and cer- 
tain waste ? Does this law of mutation, this fact of 
decay, embrace all ? Is it the doom of universal being? 
Is eternal, boundless death " the be-all and the end-all"? 
Is there no sure promise of the abiding — of that which, 
unshaken, shall endure forever ? 

We need not doubt, we should not despair. This 
glory and decay are symptomatic, prophetic. They 
could not be — there could be neither cradle nor grave, 
neither throne nor tomb — were there not a Power above; 
a Power that kindles the lights in heaven revealing his 
changeless glory, that kindles and extinguishes the 
taper-splendors of these passing ages. 

There is good hope of the eternal, not because of our 
great knowledge, not because we have explored the 
deep, searched the sky, can see the minute and distant; 
but because there is that which no lens, no human 
vision however aided, can find, no test reveal. 

God is. Because he is we are; and because he is 
eternal we have the promise of eternal life, 



"SURVIVAL OF TEE FITTEST." 271 

We behold indications of his power in this creation 
" he hangs ont on the bosom of the void infinite/' in the 
veil set with diamonds and fringed with stars that 
shadows the place of his glory; but to the observant, 
reverent mind there are even more striking witnesses of 
his care and presence in the guiding, ruling, outreaching 
of his almighty hand, that is so clearly the great lesson 
of all history, the grand result of time. 

So plain are the indications of his providence that 
even skeptical philosophy cannot avoid the conclusion 
of an invisible power moving over the world — a presence 
that science cannot explain, that cannot result from 
chance or accident; an influence that turns and over- 
turns, evolving good from evil, the sweet from the bit- 
ter, triumph from defeat; that exalts the feeble, and 
mocks the plans of the mighty; — an influence so manifest 
that even observant unbelief makes confession that there 
is in the affairs of men, in the history of nations, " a 
power that makes for righteousness" — ' ' the Eternal who 
makes for righteousness, from whom Jesus came forth, 
and whose Spirit governs the cause of humanity." 

Is it not plain that society, the world, is pervaded by 
a mighty influence that ever tends to bless, exalt, per- 
petuate the good; to weaken and blast evil? Our hope 
for the safety and welfare of Church and Nation, for the 
growth of goodness and the triumph of virtue, for the 
ultimate prosperity of humanity, is not in the skill of 
the sagacious ; in the eloquence of platform or pulpit; 
in the wisdom of the wise, the integrity of the prudent; 
in the patriotism of our defenders, or the piety of our 
teachers. For is it not evident that great reforms, 



272 LIVING QUESTIONS. 

needed m< in spiritual life and moral 

upliftingfl of tlif soul, the success of principles that 
give peace, freedom, and happiness,— thai these come, 
Dot by human mighl and power, but by a mightier 
Force revealing the presence of the Spirit of God? [a 

it not evident that Virtue gives health, while vice breeds 

ruin; that honesty is the best policy; that all things 
sympathize with righteousness; that wickedness is cor- 
ruption and desolation; that " the wages of sin is death," 
while holiness is immortal ? 

Under the perfect providence of a wise, holy, loving 
God, it must be that that which is like him will endure; 
in the broadest sense there must be a survival — as 

Spencer says, "a Burvival of the fittest;" or, as the 
Apostle presents it, "The world nassetn away, and the 
lust thereof: hut he that doeth the will of God ahideth 
forever." 

May we not from this see something of the nature of 
evil, the cause of its doom, its self-< lest ruction ? The 
theory or law of " natural selection" that provides for 
t he ** survival of the fittest " in the vegetable and ani- 
mal kingdoms seems a hard, harsh doctrine when rec- 
ognized as an approved principle among men — among 
our brethren ; for it implies the triumph of the strong, 
the proud and self-sufficient; the crushing out, the ex- 
tinction, of the weak, the meek and defenseless. It is 
the reign of brawn; the glory of flesh and cunning; the 
extinction of self-sacrifice, of heroism and all the 
nobler, diviner, manlier emotions of the heart. Eence 
it is repugnant to the Christ-like spirit that is so quick 

to hear and heed the cry of the oppressed, the wail of 



DBFTF4I OF TEE VTTTB8T. n 273 

little children, and the pleadings for help ot all irho 
being crowded and crushed by the strong and pi 

'US. 

No doubt the "survival of the fittest n prevails with 
their entire consent among heathen and barbarous 
tribes very much as it dors among lion 
and foxes; yet, as if to show that man is an exception, 

an anomaly, in the relations and unity of nature, as in- 
deed he is, we find thai under this principle these tribes 
have made no proj bul instead they have gone 

down, down into increasing weakness, vice, and wretch- 
edness. What may be good for the brute creation, for 
tin 4 preservation and* improvement of races, by " natural 
selection," is not for the highest good of man. What 
he needs to develop and perfect his excellence is not 
" natural " but " supernatural selection." For certainly 
the end is not to make of him a splendid animal: not to 
make man like a prize ox, or to develop his physique 
as horsemen bring out the tine points of a thoroughbred; 
not to make him altogether of the earth, earthy, — gov- 
erned by the rule that might makes right, and is loos- 
ened, — at liberty to make the weak its prey; — but the 
end is to make him Godlike, to educate for a higher 
life and world. 

The mission and spirit of Christ is clearly the reverse 
of death to the feeble and desertion of the weak, 
while help and blessing come to the full and strong: yet 
nothing can be more true and efficient than this law of 
selection and survival in its application to the agents, 
devotees, and promoters of moral evil. For moral evil 
is opposition to the Divine Will as that will is expressed 



274 LI VI Mi QUESTIONS. 

in the everlasting nature of things* Jt is no1 lack or 
weakness, failure from sterility and famine; it is not 
being a victim, but an actor: not unfortunate, bul crimi- 
nal; not to be ill-starred, bul with ill intention, Beeking 
tlfishness and enthrone it over all. 

Evil is discordant, out of harmony and sympathy 
with eternal order. u It is non-adaptation of constitu- 
tion to condition-." To live and thrive there must be 
fitness, adaptation. There must he COngmity between 
our powers and our position, our faculties and our en- 
vironment, or we dwindle and die. In the universe of 
a holy God moral evil or sin is rebellion; everything 
must oppose it, and it cannot survive ultimately. It is 
incongruous, like planting a rose on the windward side 
of an iceberg, planting corn on a glacier, or making an 
aviary of the red-hot mouth of a volcano. u The wages 
of sin is death/' — " everlasting destruction from t lie pres- 
ence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." 

It is uxless to dogmatize; but if the throne of God is 
undivided and his dominion universal, absolute, how 
can there exisl infinite evil, eternal Bin? One of the 
common assertions — that temporal evil is equally opposed 
to divine 4 power — is puerility in full bloom. All may 
the use of discipline and the wisdom of chastisement, 
and that here even "the wrath of man should be made 
to praise the Almighty." 

We do not know what the future may reveal, or how 
at the last divine history may interpret divine proph- 
ecy, vet we may he sure there is no ground for hope in 
Holiness alone gives the assurance of eternal hope. 
We cannot limit the mercy of God, or set bounds of 



W 7/171 .1/ W ////•; VITTE81 876 

space and time to his love and m. The diffi- 

culty is not that divine grace and forbearance can i 
fail, bul that our obdoraoj an<l corrnptioii may become 
irremediable* 

M Poit vet round the ok t 

The guiding 1 i ir 1 1 x ^ of Love Bhall bun 

But what if. habit-bound, thy feet 
BhalJ la<k the will to turn J 

What If thine eye refuse to se< 
Thine ear of Heaven's free w elcoine fail, 

Ami thou a willing captive be, 
Thyself thine own dark jail?" 

That which is in sympathy and harmony with God 
survives — endures forever. Eence human history sifted, 
consummated, plainly reveals what God values : for over- 
more we may see the pure and true rising out and shin- 
ing forth from the bad and false, outliving the vile, and 
blessing the world. 

As our globe emerged from the storms and convul- 
sions of ages, fair and beautiful, so the nations about 
US that represent so much progress in liberty and virtue 
have come from the chaos of misrule, the blasting light- 
nings of ambition, from moral earthquakes that have 
shaken down and buried deep their shame and folly, 
their bigotry and tyranny; but not a precious principle, 
a truth or virtue, has fallen to perish. Every holy pre- 
cept, heroic example, and divine thought survive-. 
What a struggle has there been for this moral existence! 
How strong, impregnable, once seemed many evils ; 
while how feeble were the germs of liberty, humanity, 
true piety, peace, and brotherhood ! 



276 LiviA'r Qi #8TtOK& 

Bow feeble in the sigh! of the world was Paul in 
Jerusalem, Athens, Borne 1 Bui where arc his judges 
and accusers? Their glory, their principles, their 
temples, and their gods are gone; while he, though 
chained, Bcourged, tempest-tossed, and daily slain, Bur- 

\i\es. His Dame and words thrill the hearts of mil- 
lions, while the truth he uttered bo long ago is fresh 
and welcome as the morning sunshine, and, by the grace 
of Him for whom he lived, is daily bringing souls to 
heaven. 

"The evil that men do lives after them; 

The good LA Ofl interred with their bom 
So said Antony at CsBSar's funeral, but lie knew better. 

It is the base and false, the rile and selfish, that die. 

Selfishness by its depraved nature works its own de- 
Btrnction, hut "charity never faileth." "Whosoever 

will Bave his life shall lose it." 

So it must be, €€ for our God is a consuming fire. " As 
George Macdonald says: "There is nothing eternal but 

that which loves and can he loved, and love is ever 
climbing towards the consummation when such shall he 
the universe, imperishable, divine. Therefore all that 
is not beautiful in the beloved, all that comes between 
and is nol of love's kind. niu<t be destroyed/' 

In every part of the divine governmenl we find a per- 
fect economy — nothing being lost or squandered. This 
is plainly true in the material world ; even where ap- 
pearances indicate waste, still there can he yo loss of a 

particle. u A dewdrop disappears from a flower in your 

garden in the month of June. It vanishes into the still 



"axr&vivAL or tbb /■/// 

air, (ml is nol lost li is in the book pf God's re men 
branoe; it is in by doable entry, and when account 
taken, it is -hit to appear in the balance-sheet at the 
proper time and place. Now it' account of stock li 
taken the next Christmas, that drop might he found in 
the head-waters of the Mississippi or the Amazon, or drip- 
ping from the paddle of an Indian's canoe on the Orin< 
it might he in the icicles thai adorn Niagara, or in 
let from which a mother is wetting the lips of a dying 

child; it might — where might it not be found? But one 

thing is certain: it could not he lost." 
If God thus cares for dewdrops and for fading flowers, 

will lie not regard and keep hi- children, those that do 
his will ? Though they disappear, are they not in the 
hand and presence of Eternal Power: are not their names 

also in his hook of remembrance ? And when at last 
account is taken, will they not appear immortal and 
glorified in his kingdom ? 

It may be that long years ago a cherished one. a rose- 
bud child, vanished from your home, your arms. Per- 
haps no trace of that bright flower of hope and love can 
now be found save in your heart, where its memory still 
is green. But not so with the Great Father who united 
you, and who parted you in equal love — parted for a 
time, to be united forever. To him there is no depart- 
ure, no end to the life of his dear ones, no gloom of the 
grave. The cherished object of your affection w r as taken 
from your arms, "not in cruelty, not in wrath, M not to 
drop into darkness, not to vanish from the sight and 
care of God, but to repose, to live securely and tenderly, 
in the bosom of Eternal Love. 



278 LIVING QUESTIONS. 

Sin, and sin alone, curses, kills, destroys; bui the •_ 
an<l true abide forever. What God loves survives, and 
hope springs from the Bure decay of the false ami had. 
Bow many errors and cruelties and abominations 1- 
died! Persecution for manly thought; bigotry; a be- 
lief in divine partiality; the doctrine ol' endless, in- 
creasingj Bcreaming physical torment, — these are dead 
or dying. But we may behold the ever- widening power 
and influence of piety, love to God and man: of Chris- 
tianity as a life; of practical belief in the Fatherhood of 
God and the brotherhood of man; of holiness ami charity. 

How often in the divine economy "the wrath of man 
is made to praise God n by promoting the good and de- 
feating or restraining the evil! The eater k^d> ns, and 
the hitter heeomes sweet. The Council of Constance in 
its wrath ordered that the bones of Wickliffe be exhumed 
and burned. What little could be found of his thin, 
old body, after forty-four years, was reduced to ashes: 
and then, as if to hint out his name and fame forever, 
they threw his ashes into the Swift — a small tributary 
of the Avon that runs into the Severn. But how fool- 
ish this angry effort! All the Councils and powers of 
Rome could not destroy a particle of WicklinVs feeble 
body, — how much less the sublime truths he advocated 
as a teacher sent from God! Yet this act of ecclesiasti- 
cal hate was prophetic, for 

"The Avon to the Severn runs, 
The Severn to the Bea; 
And Wickliffe'8 dusl shall spread abroad, 

Wide as the Waters Ik 



A.- well may kings or popes attempt to chain tl 
HUMicli ih. . a- to pin «»ut the liirht of the fee- 

si torch kindled al the Eternal Throne. 
While warnings of the brevity of this life, <<f the 
mutability of all things Been, are continually before us, 
how cheering the faith, h<>w sustaining the hope of the 
Gospel! Bow like the smile of Eternal Love are its 
promises ! Beyond these evening shadows is the bright- 
ness of the morning. Wo may well endure trial and af- 
fliction for a season, knowing thai " the foundation of 

(nul standeth sure;" that nothing precious can be lost. 

Only that can decay and perish which will by its absence 
enrich the universe; 

••lie that believeth hath eternal life." "He that 
doeth the will of God abideth forever.* 1 



XI V. 

The Battle of Life. 

Be that overcometh shall inherit all things; and 1 will be his 
(hmI, and he shall be my Bon." — Rnelatfon \.\i. 7. 

\\.\u is the aspect of this dispensation. The earth is 
one wide battle-field, — not a dress-parade ground, but 
the scene of bitter strife. Our life is a campaign; and at 
the last every one of us will be victorious or vanquished, 

a hero Crowned or a recreant shamed. Christians are 
soldiers. The Bible is our armory: here we find 'Truth 
for our girdle, the breastplate of Righteousness, the 
shield of Faith, the helmet of Salvation, the sword of 
the Spirit; — then, with B hrave heart and the prevailing 
energy of All Prayer, our equipment is complete. We 
are panoplied for the strife that awaits us. Having 
u put on the whole armor of Cod," we are ready in his 
name to enter the lists against every foe, prepared to 

conquer on every field, to be victorious in every con- 
flict. 

"He that overcometh/' — he that gains the victory: 
the moral conqueror; one who triumphs over sin. sub- 
dues himself, rules his spirit, controls the flesh, resists 

the devil, defeats the world, — " lie shall inherit all 

thing-:" and "to him/' Bays Jesus, "will J grant to sit 
with me in my tin-one, even as I also overcame, ami am 
set down with mv Father in his throne." 



TBS a.\r nr. OF in 

Aside trom n- spiritual relations, life may Prell be re- 
let! as a warfare. The battle-field, with its hostile 
ranks, its flaming banners, its passions and excitement, 
its victory or defeat, its glory or Bhame, its courage or 
cowardice, has ever been regarded as a striking symbol 
of our trials and our foes, our failure or success. 

Our life is often compared to a voyage. And we arc 
like sailors out on the mysterious sea, with its calms and 
Btorms and hidden dangers; and we need the lighl of 
heaven to guide and the stars of God to pilot as to the 
haven of perfed peace. Yes, we are Bailors seeking a 
hirer clime; hut in spiritual navigation there has been 
little progress. No Panama route to holiness or life 
eternal has been discovered; hut we too, like all the 

brave voyagers of the past, must double the stormy Cape 
and grapple with contending Beas before we can reach 
the broad Pacific of Immortality. 

The circling seasons, too, present a picture of our brief 
existence, and their well-known poet has painted it for 
us in these perfect lines: 

"Behold, fond man, — 
See here thy pictured life ! Pass some few years, 
Thy flowering Spring, thy Summer's anient strength, 
Thy sober Autumn fading into age; 
And pale concluding Winter comes at last 
And shuts the scene." 

Not only amid the deserts of the far East, but every- 
where, life is also a pilgrimage. For do we not 

u Nightly pitch our moving tent 
A day's march nearer home"? 



282 U\I\<; QUESTIONS. 

And in this connection who does not think of the fa- 
miliar words of the drama! 

"All the world's a Btaj 
Ainl all the men and women merely playi 
They have their exits and their entrance s; 

And one man in Q18 time plays many parts, 

His acts being -<\ eo ages " ? 

Ses, and strange, startling, dull, comic, tragic, is this 

life-drama; bul at last the green cm-tain of eternity falls 
upon the stage, and the actors, never encored, are hid- 
den Forever. 

Ihit martial metaphors are most common and expres- 
sive. Life lias struggles, trials, obstacles, conflicts, mak- 
ing it more like the stirring scenes of camp and field 
than voyage, pilgrimage, or drama. There is for as a 
continued conflict. Difficulties, trials, meet ns at the 
threshold of existence. We are horn at zero, with an 
infinite range of possibilities before and above: but each 
golden attainment, all the way up to the crown of eternal 
life, 18 conditioned by the price of brave, persistent 
effort Whatever path we pursue, every step of progtt 
must be over a disarmed and fallen foe. Like the fabled 
voyageof Ulysses from Troy to Ithaca, we musl reach the 
goal <>f manhood and of heaven as heroes bronzed and 
tried by exposure and conflict. 

from every point the world seems a battle-field, and 
man victor or vanquished, conqueror or slave. lie 
musl grapple with nature. It is not subdued, molded, 
arranged, refined, ready and ripe for use; but its powers 

must be tamed, its boundless dominion musl be secured 

by conquest, oh, it is a serious thing to live, unless we 



THE BA TTLB OF /// 

are content to live like the worm, or to regetate and ro< 

like the weed. Hut if we heed the bugle-call to duty, and 
are ready to stand in the rank-, true men, we must Btrive. 
We need bones of iron and sinews of Btee] or, better, a 
brain ^( spiritual power and mental energy, to mat 
and brass, and all elements of force and firmness, Berve 
us. Then this strife with nature becon irious. 

Enterprise mar>hals her ranks of labor. We may hear 
the din of this bloodless strife in forest and quarry, 
foundry, mine and miUj on land and sea; in desert, 
wilderness, and city. Fleets, engines, and the varied 
forces of nature are engaged in this grand battle-hurly, 
winnings thousand -glorious victories. IVarls from the 
deep sea, gold and gems from the mountain, luxuries 
from distanl shores; palaces, homes, cities, states, and 
empires, — are the rich spoils of this conquest. 

Then there is often a bitter hand-to-hand conflict with 
want. Many, indeed, must nerve themselves for this; 
and when equipped with health and strength it need not 
be inglorious. The hands maybe hardened, or the brow 
seamed with thought, or the cheek and garments em- 
blazoned with the heraldic honors of sun and storm: yet 
it soon becomes a strife for affluence; and with no halt- 
ing, no armistice, the battle goes bravely on, until victory 
crowns courage and fidelity. 

But sometimes, alas ! we see a war not for wealth, but 
for life— a struggle with frost and hunger and their 
cruel allies. The humble cottage or the murky garret, 
the lowliest home, is like a beleaguered fortress; and often 
a nobler, purer courage stands or kneels in its defense 
than ever stood on an embattled wall. What heroism 



284 LiviMi QUESTIONS. 

God sees in this conflict I What heroines have defended 
home and cradle, whose only weapon was the Blender 

He. -.lie ! — and with this they have gained bread for their 
orphan children, and defied the wolves howling at their 
door ! 

And this reminds us of that bitterest conflict, the 
strife of the pour and defenseless with the hell-hounds 
of Inst and temptation! Do you wonder that in this 
unequal warfare many fall? — that in the midst of gilded 
corruption and trembling want, where the poisonous 

slime of the serpent and his EangS of death are hidden 
by the glitter of Ins burnished scale- — do you wonder 

that the devil finds unguarded victims? Oh, what need 
of the helping hand, of the loving, sympathetic heart ! 
Alas, how often is this the picture of our light with 
sin ! 

" Heart-sick, homeless, weak and weary, 

< >n the edge of doom she stands, 
Fighting back the wily Tempter 

With her trembling woman's hands. 
Ou her lip a moan of pleading, 

In her eyes a look of pain — 

Men and women, men and women, 

Shall her cry go up in vain ? 
( )n thai head so early faded 

Pitiless the rains have heat ; 

Famine down the pavements traeked her 

r>\ her bruised and bleeding feet. . . . 

Pace t<> face with shame and insult 

since she drew her baby-breath, 
Were it ttrange to find her knocking 

At the cruel door of Death? 



THE BATTLE OF LIFE. 386 

W, iv [t thai she should parley 

With the great arch-fiend of Bin ! 

Open wide. I I gall - Of M. | 

w ider, wider I Let her In. 

Ah ! my proud and -coin fid lady, 

Lapped In laces fair and ftne, 
But for Qod's good grace and mercy 

Such a fate as hera were thine. 
Tin breaking combe of honey, 

Breaking loaves of snowy bread. 
It* she ask a crumb— I charge you 

Give her not a stone Instead.' 1 

Ami again, to those who would gain the treasures of 
wisdom and knowledge there is an unavoidable conflict; 
there musl be brave, pegristenl effort. Pain, toil, trial, 
inv young friends, are the conditions, the price de- 
manded, and no one in this warfare can hire a substitute 
or conquer by proxy. It is .-till true, as in the days of 
Euclid, that '-there is no royal road to intellectual ex- 
cellence/' but the crown of wisdom and the scepter of 
knowledge are the rewards of enduring self-denial and 
courage. So life is ever a struggle, demanding zeal 
and fidelity. 

" Steep, and hung with clouds of strife, 
Is our narrow path of life." 

Do you ask why? Why it is so hard? Why there 
must he battle and conquest before triumph? I know 
it might have been different Everything might have 
been provided for us except character ; except virtue/ 
holiness, manliness ; except moral and divine qualities. 
We might be provided for as animals, but not as respon- 



LI VI Mi QUESTION 

gible ]• made in the image of God. Our manhood 

must be the result of our own quest and effort ; like the 
young hero of the olden time, we must win the spurs of 
our moral knighthood by personal prowess and noble 
daring. 

Bui it Beems we might have an easier time. Loaves 
of bread might grow on all the trees; hot rolls and but- 
tered toast might be gathered from the bushes at the 
door. Our streams might How with milk and wine, and 

all luxuries load our tables without the cost of the hard- 
curd hand and the sweating brow. Ready-made clothing 
might hang from bough and vine ; yes, the orchard, 
without grafting, might furnish not only pulpy fruit 
hut an abundant and Fashionable wardrobe — every gar- 
ment an exact lit and in the latest style. Palace dwell- 
ings with every modern improvement, and furnished 
with Oriental taste and splendor, might 

" Rise like SB exhalation, with the sound 
Of dulcet symphonies and voices sweet, 
Built like a temple. 94 

Would this be well? Does the vision charm? Even 
if thus in mere material things we were absolved from 
all toil. — if we could thus live in luxury without effort or 
trial, while our selfishness and our passions remained, — 
how soon would this fancied Paradise become a world- 
wide Pandemonium, and the green earth hecome a ward 
of driveling imbeciles, or a bedlam of demons ! 

But God has ordered otherwise. We need the trials. 
difficulties, and dangers that beset as. What splend< 
beam out of the darkness ! What bows of peaee and 



THE BATTLE OF in 287 

promise are Bel on the I itorm ! •* I >ut of t be eater 

aea meat, and oxx\ of the Btrong comes sweetne 
Eeroism, nobility, love, hope, and faith are worth all 
they cost, and you cannot have them without this price 
of trial- without both toeman ami victory. Paul, you 
remember, aayB, "We glory in tribulations also, know- 
ing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, 
experience; and experience, hope; ami hope maketh 
not ashamed." And again he says, " I take pleasure 
in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecu- 
tions, in distresses, for Christ's sake: for when I am 
weak, thenam I Btrong." "For my strength is made 
perfeel in weakness. Mosi gladly therefore will I rather 
glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may 
rest upon me." How true; and howthe experience of 
- illustrates this truth ! To the great, thought!* sa . 
Godless world how feeble, how weak and worthless this 
Buffering Apostle ! Yet out of that weakness came a 
power that to-day girdles the globe with a zone of hope, 
and that unfurls the victorious banner of the Cross on 
islands and continents, Ear beyond the boldest flight of 
the Roman eagle. Out of the distresses and persecutions 
in which St. Paul gloried comes the kingdom of our 
Lord and of his Christ — a kingdom that is to be uni- 
versal, and whose dominion of peace and redemption 
shall never end. 

I Opposition makes us strong. According to fable, who- 
ever conquers an enemy inherits his strength; the energy 
and eon rage of the fallen foe enter the arm and heart 
of the victor. At least, it is true that we gain strength 
in conflict — conflict that tries the fiber of our being ; 



LIVING QUESTIONS. 
and we become more than conquerors through victory. 

Bow soft and cordless ifi the arm of the idler! How- 
pulpy and empty the head of the thoughtless] Bow 
hard and the heart of the Belfish! Without 

the discipline of affliction, difficulty, and pain to try as, 
or something to rouse us to effort, manhood would be 

mpossible as the fiighl of an eagle in a vacuum. We 
need the pinches of poverty, the pangsof hunger, the 

tge bites of winter. We need to overcome before we 
can possess. So long as we are coddled and fed with a 
pap-spoon, bo long as we are loaded with abundance 
and repose on "flowery beds of ease," we shall remain 
big babies, and cannot, or will not, become men. In 
view of indolence, lust, and vanity -well, in view of 
their effect, there is a place and mission for every pain 
and trial, every rock and storm. Hood and fire : for, after 
all, such rude, stern teachers are the conservation of the 
world. "Here is a human soul clothed with a body, 
to I..- trained t<> virtue. t<> self-command, to spiritual 
strength and nobleness. Would perpetual case and 
pleasure, a perpetual luxury of sensation, best do that? 

We know that it would not." Can we conceive of a 

noble manhood without some kind of trial and suffering? 
The question is not what will besl produce line, fat, 
k animals; not what will make us perfect in gas- 
tronomy, <>r fashion us into the physical perfection of 
a Beau Brummell, or give us the table and couch of an 
Epicurean Bluggard. If such is the purpose of Nature, 
the intention of nature'.- (uu\, then our world is a com- 
plete blunder, — an ill-made, wretched affair, only perfect 
in it- imperfection, Bui if it is intended for a school. 



THE BATTLE OF i in:. 

and it' the ultimate end is a ripeness tor heaven by h 
naade the partaken of divine holiness, then all thi 
witness to the love and care of God. 

Tins strife with materia] things, this Btrnggle tor bread 
and physical knowledge, is needed to prepare as for the 
inevitable conflict awaiting all in the moral world. I 
might teed and clothe us ; he might make as perfect 
animals; but Omnipotence cannot make us perfect men— 
cannot make as complete in virtue, heroism, and char- 
ity; for the command is, "Work out your own salva- 
tion. w in our Btrife with want and ignorance we 
may gain moral strength, and are taught that to win a 
1 Hike character, to be rich in grace, we must "fight 
a good fight;" "quit ourselves like men; bestrong." 
A ^ in the common affairs of life exertion develop 
Btrong, athletic nature ; as no prize iswon without Btrife; 
aa the battle must be gained before the spoils can be 
enjoyed,— eo we must strive, overcome sin and tempta- 
tion, befpre we can claim and enjoy the Christian's glory 
and reward. [ndeed, all providence and all law— not 
only the Levitical and moral, but the universal govern- 
ment of God— is "a schoolmaster to bring as to Christ/' 
And the reason of all about as, of the fruitful ami the 
barren, of cyclone and zephyr, of earthquake and flow- 
er, of rock and gem, of bramble and fig-tree, of tears 
and gladness,— the reason of all is, "God so loved the 
wm-ld/'*— ami lie would make us "complete in Christ. * 
Both analogy and experience teach us plainly that 

"In the throng 
Of evils that assail us, there are none 
That yield their Btrength to virtues struggling arm 



290 UVINQ QUESTIONS. 

Willi Buch munificent reward of power 

\ preai temptations. We may win by toil, 

Endurance ; BainUy fortitude by pain ; 

\\\ sickness, patience ; faith and trust by fear ; 

But the great stimulus that spurs to life, 

And crowd- to generous development 

Each chastened power and passion of the soul, 

Lb the temptation of the soul to sin, 

Resisted and reconquered — evermore. " 

STes, there is a warfare in which all are enlisted. Like 
our conflict with mortality, so hero "there is no dis- 
charge. " Both the unfortunate ami the favored may 
he relieved from military service. lint in moral life and 
action; in our relations to sin ami holiness, the spirit of 
the world and the claims of God ; in the strife between 
the "earth-born ami the heaven-born ; M in that old, 
first contest, when thronesand dominions mot the em- 
battled array of the giants of evil ; in this conflict, still 
continued — not now in heaven, hut in thine own heart, 
<> man. where the hell-begotten strive with thee and thy 
guard of angels for the priceless citadel of thine own 
BOul, the hold and hope of immortality; — in this warfare, 
where the issues are eternal, there are no exemptions, 
substitutes, or neutrals, hut all are marshaled; the 
muster-roll of duty, the bugle-call to arms, and the 
drum-heat t<> battle reach every ear and heart. And 
when at Laerf the swords are sheathed and the banners 
furled, all of us, every one, shall Btand as victor or van- 
quished; then will appear the shame of defeat, or we 

shall he mustered out of service with crowns of life and 
palm- of victory, to -well the march of triumph as the 



////•: BATTLE OF I //•'/•:. 291 

Oaptain of our salvation leads his rejoicing array home. 

Shall we increase the number and the triumph <»!' 

" The sacramental host <»f God 'a elect . " 

aa they enter the Eternal ( ' i t \ , singing t he song of M 
and the Lamb? shall our feel Btand within thy gates, 
( I Jerusalem ? shall " an abundant entrance" be granted 
us into thai celestial Home where no curse can <-<>m<\ 
neither sorrow nor pain ; where service shall beourglory, 
ami labor shall he real ? 

Earth is the place of conflict, and the campaign only 
closes when we enter the winter-quarters of the grave. 
Hciv we meet the ranks of evil. The world is full of 
temptation. There is need of the utmost vigilance, and 
the sentinels that guard the issues of life must he brave 
and tireless in their watch, or they will be surprised and 
overcome. 

Our Lusts are strong and clamorous. They cast down 
many. Appetite and Passion laugh to scorn the care- 
. unguarded conqueror of empires, and find in him 
an easy victim. The fear of Man ; the glitter of Am- 
bition — that "glorious cheat, " that robs us of many a 
bright and noble mind ; the Love of Money, or Mam- 
mon — that great god whom all America and the world 
worshipeth, a god more cruel than Moloch, more ob- 
scene than Ashtaroth, — these are some of the foes we 
must meet, some of the champions of Death that we 
must overcome, or fail and fall in this battle of life. 

We notice that our Christian life is above all, as we 
intimated at the first, a warfare. In representing our 
relations to God and the world as the followers of Christ, 



-I'.r] trrnra questions, 

the inspired writers draw their most expressive imagery 
from battle's Btern array from the tented field and the 
strife of martial heroes. The apostolic exhortations 
often sound like the stirring orders of military officers, 
or the address of some general on the eve of battle. Lei 
me quote some of the words of Paul: "Bui thou, 
man of God, fighl the good Bghl of faith, lay hold on 
eternal life." "Thou, therefore, endure hardness as a 
.1 Boldier of Jesus Christ. " u Finally, my brethren, 
be Btrong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. 
Put on the whole armor of God, thai ye may be able to 
stand againsl the wiles of the devil. " " Watch ye, stand 
fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. ** This 
will remind some of yon. boys, I trugfc, of the noble 
words of Lord Nelson, uttered just before his death — 
•• England expects every man to do his duty !" And 
this is expected of us Dot to do and die as did this 
admiral, bul in the sighl of heaven and before men 
we are to do the will of God. For we should remember 
that all the blessings of the Gospel, as well as the good 
things of this world, are promised to those who overcome. 
How solemn the thought, the truth, that all of us, 
even here amid these peaceful scenes, amid these hills 

and valleys, where onr fathers lived and toiled, — thai 
all of ns are engaged in a eon 11 id whose issues are eternal ! 
Alas ! t em j»t a 1 ion comes with the morning sunshine; and 
trials linger, and griefs remain, and sins abide long after 
the time for the curfew bell, to deepen the darkness and 
cloud the stars. We can have true peace only as we con- 
quer it, and can resl secure from temptation only as we, 
too. overcome in the name of Christ. For the trail of 



TBB BATTLE OF i.in:. 298 

the serpent is on our hills and valley-, and we, too, have 
souls immortal and interests infinite at stake, thai musl 
defended with the seal of heroes, thai musi be 
ired by personal courage -by our being notorious in 
the common strife againsl the forces of evil. I tar fat h< 
conquered the wilderness, and these fertile farms are the 
Emits of their victory. Bui they were also Christian 
heroes, and here won a harder battle over sin, and 
gained a nobler triumph in behalf of truth, righteous- 
ness, and liberty. While we can enter into their labors, 
enjoying these farms and homes, yet to win heaven our 
own kneesmust how, our own hearts must strive; we musl 
ourselves " put on the whole armor of God, and endure 
hardn< diers." It is blessed to be the child 

of Christian parents; but how terrible to go from one of 
these homes redolent of faith and prayer, and be unpre- 
pared to meet (rod — unprepared for heaven ! 

Let us in conclusion notice some of the conditions of 
success or of victory in this moral warfare. Nothing 
among men is more strict, more clearly defined, than 
martial law; and there is nowhere more worldly wisdom 
in the selection of the best means than in the common 
precepts of war. It is sad to think that the world is 
more united under military law — more united by the 
rules and the spirit of wholesale murder — than by the 
provisions of peace, justice, and freedom. 

It is for the soldier of Christ to understand his march- 
ing orders, for immortal destiny trembles in the balance 
here; but, thank God, it need not — it does not— depend 
on any uncertain wager of battle ! Defeat is impossible 
to all who have emblazoned on their banner the victorious 



294 1.1Y!\<; QUESTIONS. 

a of the cross and the Bleeding [jamb. This is the 
( Ihristian's Labarum, as it was the EmperoH !onstantin< 

1. We are to make no compromise with evil in any of 
Forma It' we parley with Satan, we arc at war with God. 

In mere Bocial intercourse with men we should be yield- 
ing and pliant as a willow; but when there isa moral 
principle involved, then we should have a bee like flint 
and a heart like steel ! It' we mingle earthly with 
celestial wisdom, and listen to the plausible counsels of 
expediency, if we grant the least concession to iniquity, 
our defeat is secured. When the prophel Micaiah was 
requested by the royal messenger to speak good words 
unto King A hal>. he replied, in the words of everytrue 
prophet: "As the Lord liveth, what the Lord said unto 
me that will I speak. " It is not for us to look at con- 
sequences, hut we are to strike fearlessly, suddenly, no 
matter what may be the issue. 

*• \W thou like the old apostles, be thou like heroic Paul: 
If a free thought Beeka expression, speak it boldly I speak it 

all ! 
Face 1 1 1 i 1 1 o enemies, accusers; scorn the prison, rack or rod; 
And if thou hast truth 1o Qtter, speak, and leave the rC8l to 

God." 

2. Implicit obedience is always demanded of the 

soldier. It is essential in cam]) and held. lint here 
there is a difference. The obedience of a soldier is like 

a machine — without thought or reason. 

" Not though the Boldier knew 

Some one had blundered; 

Theirs'not to make reply. 

Theirs not to reason why, — 

Thrii^ hut to do and die." 



Tin: /;.i TTLB OP tH 296 

Bui Chrisl makes qo such demands. Ambition may 
require such sacrifice, bu1 it is abhorrent to the spirit of 
tin* Gospel. Such obedience, thought automatic, 

by the pressure of power and authority, cannot be 
christian obedience. For the first requirement is the 
voluntary exercise the thoughtful, natural exercise — of 
every power and faculty. I lore indeed, is the very soul 
of our obedience in the use of thought, reason, volition, 
in using ourselves, by ourselves, as God and nature 
demand. I speak thus particularly, because this and 
some other figures of the Gospel have been misused by 
igning priests and kings to sustain their unholy 
authority, and to crush and strangle the sacred rights 
of the individual soul. Yet our obedience must be 
implicit, prompt, ami free. We are ordered by the 
"Captain of our salvation" into the breach of all the 
evils of the world, and he never orders a halt or beats a 
retreat — but it is ever right onward, in his name, with 
assurance of victory. 

3. Again, we need the inspiration of love. There is no 
strength, heroism, or zeal like that which comes by the 
inspiration of deep and true affection. What a power! 
"The love of Christ constrains me/' said Paul; and 
under its inspiration, though tempest-tossed and hunted, 
he exclaims, "I am hard-pressed, yet not crushed; help- 
less, yet not hopeless; persecuted, yet not forsaken; cast 
down, yet not destroyed;" and in all he "was more than 
a conqueror v through love. There is no height it can- 
not scale, no chasm it cannot bridge; there is no danger 
it will not dare, no enemy it will not defy; no sacrifice 
is too great, no demand too much, as the expression of 



290 i.l visa QTTXSTTOm 

its devotion; and all that heart, hand, tongue, and life 
can give it freely bestows to bless, redeem, or enrich its 
object How sublime its heroism! how grand its 
courage ! Through love of home and liberty have deeds 
been done that exalt and glorify our poor humanity, and 
even the lurid clouds of war have been silvered over by 
it- benign presence. 

The priceless victories of the Church in the martyr 
ages— -nay, in all time- have been triumphs of this affec- 
tion; and if we would he victorious over evil, we must 
have in our hearts a great and true love; for, though 

blessed with every other gift, u without charity we are 

nothing. " 

•I. Lastly, we mention Faith — thai virtue with pro- 
phetic gifts and more than royal power: that rugged vir- 
tue thai thrives amid affliction and grows strong in the 
storm. Says the Apostle John, "This is the victory 

that OVerCOmeth the world, even our faith. lie who 

overcometh the world believeth that Jesus is the Son 
of God." With this -face to shield, we are invin- 
cible, while without it we must fail in every conflict, be 
defeated on every field. Read the eleventh chapter of 
Hebrews — that muster-roll of heroes and heroines- and 
learn what faith has done. And in the grander, nobler 
triumphs of the Christian age, what a list of names 
mighl be added to this record of honor! We mighl 
begin with the Apostles of our Lord, who through faith 
conquered though they fell. Yes. "the glorious com- 
pany of the Apostles, and . the noble army of the mar- 
tyrs, with the holy Church throughout all the world." 
have obtained a good reporl through faith. By faith 






77//: BATTLE OP in &H 

Lather stood firm tor God and truth -stood firm i 
rock in one of the mountain-rifts of the ages, in one of 

the noted passes thai guard human freedom; st L alone 

like Eorai ius al the bridge, to defend the right, and de- 
feat the hosts of oppression, stood the defender of con- 
science and the champion of n free ;m<l open Bible. 
And by faith the martyrs a1 Smithfield and Oxford 
win for liberty and righteousness, "not accepting 

deliverance " as the price of their silence; and by their 
faith the firq thai was kindled to burn them became 
";i great Light to the people which sai in darknee 

The time would Eail me to tell of those who in these 
hitter days through faith have subdued kingdoms, 
wrought righteousness, nut of weakness been made strong, 
waxed mighty in war and t turned armies to flight. While 
doubt or distrust always induces weakness and fear, 
confidence, simple trust in the Lord Jesus always fills 
the heart with more than a hero's valor and leads to 
certain victory; therefore, "above all, lake the shield of 
faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery 
darts of the wi< ked." 



X V. 
The I\i:al [SSUE: A DISCOURSE ox Kvolitiox. 

Part Fibst. 

"There Is one God and Father of all, who is above all, and 
through all. and in all. "— JB^pfattaiM iv. G. 

"Through faith we understand thai the worlds were framed i>y 
the word of God, bo that things which are Been were not made <>f 
things which do appear." — Hebrews \i. 3. 

W'hkn we attempt *• ;i s1 mly of origins," two direct 
and diverse answers are given to our questioning. For 

while there are differences in detail, yet all views as to 

the Bource, the ground, of the cosmos, the origin of the 

universe, maybe fairly classified as Theistic or Athe- 
istic, — as teaching a divine creation, or claiming that 

all things result from "the inherent powers of material 

elements." 

One belief is, u [n the beginning was God, — spirit, — 

and God uttered himself in creation. All things Were 

made by him; and without him was not anything made 

that hath been made." 

r rhe other Bays," In the beginning was matter. — mat- 
ter and motion ; and these have formed, or have grown 

into, all order, u isdom, life/' We have still the old-fash- 
ioned evolution of a Godless philosophy, the evolution 
of a Lucretius and a Democritus who lived ages ago, — 

the Bame theory that at time- in all the past has heen 



THE REAL ISSUE, 299 

presented as the mosi reasonable explanation of a rea- 
sonless world: the most intelligent view ol a world 
without intelligence, thai is simply the product ofnec- 
ii-\ , material causes alone. 

On the other hand, we have the order of nature, the 
phenomenon <>i' life, explained, or accounted for, by the 
presence of a personal Creator, who to reverent mind- is 
i€ God over all, and Father of all : who is above all, and 
through all, and in all," — " for to us there is one God the 
Father, of whom are all things. '* 

We have atheism and theism. The first says: All 

things i-xist as we see them by material agency, by a 
law of necessity: we see them because they are, and 
they are because of the nature of things — this is "the 
ill and the end-all " of knowledge, hope, and reason. 
Here we can build no altar, even to an k% Unknown 
God." There can be no worship, justice, truth, obe- 
dience, virtue, honor, nor duty; neither moral beauty, 
courage, liberty, nor fidelity. "Thai which happens 
must happen." "Every soul, like Mazeppa, is lashed to 
the wild horse of passion, or, like Prometheus, to the 
rocks of fate!" * 

The other says, "From among numberless possibili- 
ties an All-wise Creator, who is Love, chose the best 
material and the best means for the best purpose/' and 
we see the heavens declaring his glory, and the earth 
filled with his wisdom. 

Now in view of intuitive demand for causality; in view 
of the fact of a manifested intelligence in nature; in the 



* Col. Robert G. Ingersoll, North American Review, 



900 livix<; QUESTIONS, 

same way, and even with stronger assurance, thai ire 
know there is mind in man ; in view of the cleared in- 
dications <»f design and skill, of an infinite directing, 
sustaining Power, atheism, logically, has ever seemed 
weak and inconclusive. It has never satisfied the mind. 
"The sphini of teleology still threatens unconquered 

i'mm her crag," looking down witli contempt upon 

weakness. When Paley, a hundred years ago, gave the 
world his "Natural Theology, " the skepticism of thai 
period found it unanswerable, and it bo remains to-day. 
But the theory of Evolution, " development, " has 
again come to the front, its devotees claiming "the 
regularity of nature to be the first postulate of science" 
— a principle that we do not question; but some of its 
advocates arc claiming with this that in the order of 
nature there is no design, plan, or purpose, im end or 
adaptation, no intelligence — only a material, mechanical 
result. This claim dors not take the trouble of exclud- 
ing God from the world about US, but makes his presence 
Useless — a practical unreality, at best a mere ornamental 
finish, satisfying to minds of a morbid religious taste. 
A- it places all under a law of necessity, there is no room 

for I'vrr volition, for a loving Providence, 1'or any divine 
act ion. 

Mr. Darwin assures US that "there is a law of per- 
sistent force acting on the universe." Be teaches thai 
nothing is made complete, but all things are evolved 
from some lower form. Man was not made, he grew, by 
the inherent necessity of a progressive law, arising slowly 

from some brute animal, or series of animals reaching 

back to the lowest form of life, The father of modem 



THE KHAL IBSU1 301 

Evolution \\<»ul(l put all the animate world under a Borl 
of barbarous tfalthusian Eate No one pretends t hat for 
this procession of life, this growth of man from a brute 
ancestor, there is proof; tor all admit that, instead of a 
continuous, symmetrical chain of being, such as this the- 
demandBj there is a! besl a mass of broken and any 
number of missing links. The Failure here is bo com- 
plete ami bo fatal t<> Darwin'- " Origin of Species " thai 
St. George Mivart Bays, u I cannot hesitate to call it a 
puerile hypothesis." 

The greal truth in this new Genesis is claimed to be 
" continuity againsl miracle, and law againsl arbitrari- 
ness. ,J Bu1 there arc fatal breaks in Darwinism as well 
as missing links breaks in the chain fatal to the theory 
and fata! to the doctrine of continuity. Look at this! 
Man as a descendant from the brute is, by the law of 
heredity, an effect without a cause. Even if his body be 
provided for, which it is not,* from whence did he derive 
the essentials of his manhood? He is a mere freak of 
nature — a sort of divine monster I 

And again, while Darwin does attempt to bridge the 



* Prof. Dana says in his Geology: " No -remains of fossil man 
bear evidence to less perf eel erectness of structure than incivil- 
i/.ed man, or to any nearer approach to the man-ape in essential 

characteristics. . . . From the Lowes! limit- in existing man there 
are all possible gradations up to the highest; while below that 

limit there is an abrupt fall to the ape level, in which the cubic 
Capacity Of the brain is one half le88. If the links ever existed 
to complete tins chain, their annihilation without a trace is so 
extremely improbable that it may he pronounced impossible." 

Is it childish to question a theory thus l»a>ed on the improbable, 

the impossible? 



302 i.ivix<; QUESTIONS. 

gulf between animal instinct and human intelli. 
animal impulse and our mora] sense and consciousn< 
vri he is too urise and candid to undertake by any theo- 
retical engineering to cross the chasm between death and 
life, "between dead and living matter." for here he ad- 
mits that help must come from the eternal source of 
life. Eence he himself Bupposesa break in the law of 
scientific continuity by the introduction of at least one 
miracle! In the "Origin of Species" he says, " I infer 
that probably all the organic beings which have ever 

lived on this earth have descended from some one pri- 
mordial form into which life was iirst breathed by the 
Creator." 

Now if this original "form" was made to contain 
potentially all the organic world as we now see it, made 
at the first, adequate to produce it. or if it Involved all 
that has been evolved, then it is precisely the same as 
though God had directly formed all organic beings by 
special creations: and Evolution deprived of its novelty 
and relieved of its heretical character becomes the unfold- 
ing of divine purposes; revealing the presence and wis- 
dom of the Creator and Sustainer of the universe.* It 



* "It la doI enough to Bay that a germ was originated by mat- 
ter, and thai germ by development became man. It is impossible 
for us to accept anything as a cause unless it Lb adequate to pro- 
duce the effect. That germ must have had in it from the begin 
ning all the capacity of developing Into man. It must have been 
sufficient to produce man. And no <>nc can intelligently believe 
that matter could produce Buchagerm unless he believes matter 
could produces man in his highest development. One result is 
just as wonderful and reasonable as the other. To attempt to 
account f<>r man from a germ that is not as wonderful and re- 



THE REAL IBSUB. 808 

beoomee amply another method ol explaining the Oral 
of Genesis — the cosmogony ol Moses, Bui if this virtue 

is denied; if this first life was not an Adamie germ rep- 
resenting all future growth and being; if all vrere not 
involved, — then there has been no evolution, no con- 
nected succession and development, bul a series of revo- 

1 nt ions, of continued breaks in the chain of continuity — 

mere Fortuitous results, a succession of causeless effects. 
So l>\ its own showing Darwinism rests either on miracle 
of anarchy, 

ESither all things ate divinely directed, and in the 

uniformity of nature we Bee the work of God, whether 
evolving all the organic world from a single germ or 
marking the dateless epocns of the past by distinct, crea- 
tions, — or we see about us that which is impossible, un- 
thinkable— power, wisdom, and plan without mind; we 
see infinite intelligence in a GodleS8, hopeless world. 

Involution is an unfolding, and this we certainly see 
in the method of nature and in the history of man. In- 
deed the entire story of the world is marked by a sub- 
lime and wonderful progress. The first chapters of this 
divine unfolding are taught in Genesis. From chaos 
to the cosmos; from darkness to light; from universal 
deadness to the dominion of life; from unorganized 
matter to organic forms; from the earth to the vegeta- 



<iuirinir a- direct creative power as man himself is illogical, 
sophistical. And so also the creation 'of one primordial form' 

that shall evolve all created beings in their order would require 
equal skill and power with the distinct creation of every specific 
form." (Prof. Chadbourne, ''Lectures on Natural Theology," 
p. 51.) 



304 uvnro QUESTIONS. 

ble; from grass and tree to Bah and fowl; from reptile 
to mammal, and from beasi to man,— ever on and up, we 
the grand procession of order and life. In all the 
various kingdoms of God there is this law, or this pot 
bility of progress; as Jesus said of bis spiritual rule or 
governance, thai il was like the unfolding of the Beed 
growing bo mysteriously — * * first the blade, then the 
ear, after that the full corn in the ear." Bis kingdom 
is an evolution from a divine and glorious involution of 
truth and life. " For our sufficiency is of God," " who 
worketh in as both to will ami to do of his good pleas- 
ure." Like the mustard-seed, like the leaven in the 
meal, so in all the realms of grace and nature there is 
under the Divine Eand an unfolding of the spirit, of 
the life, the plans, the beneficence of the Almighty. 

There could be no progress, no proceeding, as Spencer 
Bays, "from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous, 
from the Bimple to the complex in a series of differentia- 
tions/ 5 no completion of the universe, no rising, by 
whatever means produced, from the Si formless void 

to the earth filled with order, light, and life, without 

the appearance of evolution. 

•'Creative efficacy resides only in the will of (h>d. 
Now thai which formed the world was neither the 
visible hand of God, nor the breath of his mouth that 
mi-lit be Eelt, nor his voice thai might be heard, — but 
only his will, silent and invisible. Hence to a mind wit- 
nessing the process of creation there would have been 
the appearance of things seeming to rise spontaneously 
from nothing; there would have been nothing but the 

etaele of movements springing spontaneously from 



THE ttEAL T88UB, 306 

the elements themselves and their invisible action and 
reaction, Bince they were no! communicated by any per- 
ceptible breath From (Sod's month; nothing, finally, 
would q bat the spectacle of bodies thai would 

-I to be produced by the reciprocal attraction of the 
element Therefore the pi of the formation of 

the world would appear in no way different to him who 
conceived it as pervaded by the creative activity of God, 
and to him Who could see in it nothing but a buc 
evolution according to natural law."* 

[nasmuch as Evolution may thus harmonize with ap- 
pearance, and as the word may be used with " scientific 
consistency," it is in just this proportion liable to n 
lead the seeker after spiritual realities, after the invisi- 
ble, the eternal. Beguiled, dazzled by the discoveries of 
Bcience, by the splendor of its revelations, we may be 
tempted to rest in these, to make appearances the basis 
of our hope — or of the rejection of hope; to make the 
unfolding glories of God deny his presence, and the 
order of nature testify against his power. How appro- 
priate, then, and needful just here are the wonderful 
words of inspiration ! For while the scientist is limited 
to the material, hounded by the visual line that girts 
him round, to the heart of the Christian belongs the 
power <>f faith that st<>p> not with the outward, with ap- 
pearances, hut beholds the spiritual, the invisible. As 
if designed fortius hour are the words of the Apostle. 
Indeed they have even a scientific verity that in this 
connection gives them a peculiar interest. Says Paul, 



* Hermann Lotze, "Microcosnius," vol. ii. p. 129. 



806 LlYIMi QUESTIONS. 

u We look not al the things which are Been, but at the 

things which arc not seen : for the things which arc 
-»'i'ii are temporal ; bul the things which arc not seen 
are eternal." Ami again: "We understand that the 
worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things 

which arc seen were not made out of things which do 
appear." 

The above quotation from Lotze reminds as of trie 
familiar saying thai "appearances arc often deceptive." 
And we know that BOme at least of our evolutionists 
have disregarded the warning of the Good Book "not to 
judge according to the appearance;" hut they have been 
quite ready to trust this superficial testimony of the out- 
ward as final, and to conclude that bepause the world to 
our vision "appears like a spontaneous growth," it is 
therefore simply a material result. 

And this is the one great poinl at issue : Is the world 
with its various kingdoms the product of spontaneous, 
material activity: (he effeel of '-material transform - 
isms:" a sequent of the atoms and elements of matter, 

Or is it an absolute truth that God was and is forever 
working through all the forms of nature's activity — 
"that all creative efficacy resides alone in the will of 
Cud"? 

Here is the eontliet — not between Science and Re- 
ligion, hut between Materialism and Faith. These arc 
the vital questions. It is not to understand the divine 
method that the heart cries out in appeal: hut is there 

a divine Power? Ah yes: and it is a pervading divine 
Power, an immanent Go<J. it is not that we hunger and 

thirst after a correct theory of the organic world — a cor- 



TBB REAL tBBUR 9ffl 

red oosmogony; bal is il atheism, materialism, or God, 
Our Father — which ? For the question is aol regarding 
the method, whether direct or mediate, whether by slow 
unfoldinga or by distinct creations; but, have we a good 
foundation for hope in the Living God whoisnol Ear 
from every one of d 

It is confusing thai there are bo many kinds of evolu- 
tion, BO many different theories, that the word is u>rd to 
express. It is employed by those who rejecl material- 
ism, and also by the ult ra-materiali>t s. Those wlio 
at besi have an unknown, unknowable God use this 
word to designate a theory thai if it does no! absolutely 
exclude the Divine Presence, yel renders all divine 
activity useless or impossible. 

Bui it is impossible to avoid the inevitable conflict be- 
tween faith and skepticism: impossible to bridge the gulf 
of doubt, or to relieve the fearful by using this word. It 
is not a talisman to shield the timid, nor can it be used 
as a compromise to unite in fellowship the saint and the 
savant. The one issue is between theism and atheism: and 
there is no middle ground between M oses and Comte, 
between the presence and providence of the Self-existent 
I and the eternal energy and efficiency of matter. 

Some of our Christian teachers seem to hold to the 
idea that there is yet another position, a safe and 
happy middle-ground, somewhere between the Hi hie 
doctrine '*of God and atheism ; and that this new and 
true position — a mean between the extremes — is most 
aptly designated by the word evolution, and that it 
represents the true attitude for all liberal minds, all 
who are abreast of the time. But it will not do. 



ZJVINQ QUESTIONS. 

There are writers especially ardent and eloquent in 
their advocacy of law. and hotly opposed to whal they 
persist in calling "divine interference, M who in their 
haste t<» prove Mosee wrong have onlj succeeded in 

demolishing a fiction of their own creation: Bncceeded 
in disproving what no one hold-, ami in detecting a 
counterfeit that no one but themselves has attempted 
t<> pass a- genuine coin. For certainly lovers and stu- 
dent- of the Bible believe in the universal supremacy 
of law. The] worship <o>d not as the author of eon- 
fusion, hnt a- supreme ESxecutive in the perfect govern- 
ment of the universe. And this notion of interference, 
on which incessanl changes have been rung, is a childish 
whim. As if Christians regarded Gpd as a foreign, 
arbitrary power in conflict with nature, and only acting 
by disorganizing the beauty and rendering discordant 
the harmony of the world ! Why, the perfect order, the 
continuity of nature, the jarless music of the spheres, 
the blending in infinite fitness of all things, present the 
strongest possible outward revelation of the Divine 
Presence and activity. There is not a line of chaotic 
space nor a lawless atom in the universe of God. 

Let me quote a few words illustrating my position. 
In his "Origin of Species." Darwin Bays : "An omnis- 
cient Creator must have foreseen every consequence 
which results from the law imposed by him." And 
again: u It is probable thai all animals and plants have 
descended from some one original form into which life 
was first breathed by the Creator. . . . There is a gran- 
deur in this view of life, with its Beveral powers having 
been orifirinallv breathed into a few forms or into one." 



THH REAL TSSl '/•:. 

IImw can it lie grander than the Biblical account, — 
where, as we have seen, it is really the same? The essen- 
tial grandeur the glorious! precious truth hereisifol 
concerning the methods, but the being and creative 
power, ol God, Eence the materialism and 1 « > lz i * * ot Dr. 
Tyndall were quick t<> see ami object to Darwin's p 

tion. He who boldly claims that we have iii matter " the 

promise and potency of all terrestrial life" cannot silently 
hear the great naturalist thus talk of a Creator; and he is 
dear, at least. He says: " The anthropomorphism which 
it seemed Mr. Darwin's object to Be1 aside is as firmly 

associated with the creation <>f a few forms aa with the 
creation <»t* a multitude. We need clearness here. Two 
courses, ami tw<» only, are possible. Either let us open 
our doors freely to the conception of creative acts, or, 
abandoning them, let as radically change our notions of 
matter." 

Mr. A. R. Wallace, though not a materialist, falls into 
the same confusion, yields to the Bame prejudice, by 
concluding that the use of secondary means or causes 
relieves the "Creator of constant activity," ami that the 
prevalence of law renders ••divine, intervention" 
unnecessary. This is the baldest, crudest anthropo- 
morphism. To our apprehension, God always uses 
means and works through what we call law. If there 
is one passion that grows witli our growth in knowledge, 
it is the desire to comprehend and solve the mysterious, 
explain the difficult, and discover the cause or causes in 
the phenomena about as. But in connection with this 
principle of causality comes the almost universal delu- 
sion, the pestilent intellectual heresy, that when we 



310 LIVING QUESTIONS* 

have made such discovery, when ire have round oul an 
order of sequence id nature, or can brace cause and ef- 
fect in any phenomenon,— when we see, or think we e 

how a thing is done, — then we at once conclude thai it is 
Law and nol God whose presence and power we behold. 

We conclude that the will of the Supreme is no longer 
declared or needed. To show the reason or cause of any 
phenomenon is claimed by the materialist as a triumph ; 
while many believers in spiritual agency fear such dis- 
covery as JUSl B0 far !'at;il to faith in t he d ivine adminis- 
tration. No douht it was because of this thai bo many 
Christians fell an intense alarm at the " development 
theory" and the "nebular hypothesis," Fearing that 
"creation by law" would leave God without place or 
mission. 

Bui if there is any truth in theism, as opposed to 
atheism, it is the Scripture doctrine of the presence, the 
energy, of the Almighty Father in all life, in all nature. 

He causes the sun to rise; he sendfi the rain, clothes the 
grass, feeds the fowls, and is as truly present when a spar- 
row falls as when the dead are raised. He works by law; 
for all physical law is but the method of Ins action. 
What we call laws are not powers, nor essentia] prop- 
erties of matter. It is only in appearance thai they are 
self-acting; in reality they express the will of God, and 
show the order of his government. And we yield to a 
pernicious prejudice when we make the Supreme Being, 
because of the very order that, declares Ins wisdom, an 
"absentee God," and regard his action, if possible, as 
arbitrary, an interference; instead of accepting the only 
consistent doctrine of theism, whether philosophical or 



77//: /;/•:. i/ T8SUR 31 1 

Biblical,— thai it Lb by and through and in all things 
that his glory and his will, veiled or revealed, preaeni to 
humble faith the assurance, "The Lord God omnipotent 
reigneth. w 

Bui Wallace, like Darwin, thinks it "a Ear more 
worthy conception of the Creator thai the curious and 
beautiful organisms of nature arc produced by those 
era] laws which were 90 co-ordinated at the firs! 
introduction of life upon the earth as to result neces- 
Barilyin the development of these varied forms." This 
1- feeble, drowsy logic ;.for, as we have seen, there is no 
mtial difference between the creation of a germ and 
thai of a plant; between an acorn and an oak; between 
the dowering of a first life dbas to produces given form, 
and the direct creation of that form by the instant fiat of 
the Almighty. 

On this point I must make one more quotation, for. as 
Dr. Tyndall Bays, u we need clearness here. Two courses, 
and two only, are possible/' The foremost preacher of 
all this world said, in a lecture delivered January 6, 
1883: "As contradistinguished from the old notion of 
creation,— by the instantaneous obedience of matter to 
the divine command, — the doctrine of evolution teaches 
that the divine method of creation was gradual, the result 
of steadily acting natural laws through long periods of 
time — periods so long that not even the imagination can 
stretch to the border-land of their Ear-off horizon. . . The 
divine method was a creation beginning with the very 
smallest elements,— elements inconceivably small, — and 
then gradually, through the force of divinely ordained 
natural laws, unfolding, little by little, the whole terra- 



312 i.ivi\<; QUESTIONS. 

queous globe. IT this conception <»f the origin of all liv- 

aml man were to throw out the idea Of divine 

ation, it would !»»' repugnant; bul it docs not involve 
any such consequences." 

If this can he shown to he the method of the Al- 
mighty, if it is clearly inscribed upon the rocky pag 
of the earth, then, as Christians, we may gladly accept 
this theory ; it need not diminish an atom of faith, or 
tarnish in the leasl the brightness of our hope, lint it 
i\<>i-< not touch the point of vital, present interest 
This theory ifi not more reasonable than "the old 
notion;" neither does it offer a safe and middle ground 
between the Bible and science, [t does no1 in the least 
relieve the one who stumbles at Mose^el cannot be- 
lieve atheism. 'There is no philosophic gain : it ex- 
plains no mystery, lessens no difficulty, dissipates no 
darkness. If the materialist should accept this theory. 
as thus defined by Wallace and Beecher, as a compro- 
mise in favor of the glories of matter, he would be de- 
ceived. If the Christian accepts it a- a yielding of 
dogma to reason, as representing a more rational cos- 

mogony than that of Gfenesis, he too would he deluded. 
For as between theism ami atheism, the spiritual and 
material, (the only two positions,) regarding it. m»t 
as a question of methods, but of powers.-- this theory 
l- -imply Biblical, inasmuch as it makes Qod, Spirit, 
Mind, the first of all the source and life, the guide 

ami ruler of all. It leaves the miracle of creation 

just where it ifi left in (ieiiok For the evolution of 

the Bmallesl vitalized elements that are "gradually 
unfolded through the force of divinely ordained laws" — 



////•; /;/•:. w T88U1 318 

no matter how gradual, or what datel 
consumed in their unfolding to this evolution of the 
germ thai contains the promise of and musl develop 
into the perfected organism of vegetable, animal, or 

man,- (his implies, as directly as doea Moses himself, 

not only the deep mystery bul the -rand miracle of crea- 
tion. For what have size and time to do with the <| 
tion? [t is a common notion that if we can pulverize 
matter tine enough, it will become demi-spiritual; if we 
grind it all to atoms, it will become redolent of a strange, 
marvelous power. 

But "the inconceivably small," the very ghosi of an 
atom faintly clinging on the verge of non-existence, and 
eons of time, do not, however, enter into the account as 
ning tlic mystery. It can make no difference 
whether God endows an atom with the possibility, the 
necessity, of ultimately, "through the force of divinely 
ordained laws," evolving an Adam, an Abraham, or a 
Washington, or whether lie directly and instantly creates 
them from " the dust of the ground." And if it could 
he proved that all the organisms on the globe have come 
from a germ endowed with power to evolve all things in 
their geologic and zoographic order from the lowest up 
to man, this would he as a testimony, as an exhibition, 
of divine power, qmt.- as potenl as if God should 
now instantly create them all perfect, rank above rank, 
marshaled in the order of life as wenow see it animating 
the world around us. 

Suppose we could look down upon the globe as it once 
was,— lifeless, in its winding-sheet of cloud and mist,— 
and could then see the whole organic world brought into 



314 l.llixc QUE8TT0NS 

t< hiv. as complete as it ua to-day, in a moment of 
time. This vision would prove do more to thoughtful 
minds in regard to the Creator, do more demonstrate bis 
power and wisdom, than does the organic world as we 
dow see it the slow result of ages of progress. Time and 
method do do1 affeci the argument nor invalidate the 
proof- of a divine, a supernatural creation. 

Ajb we havesaid, therefore, this docs not touch the point 
at issue, the question of to-day. This does not indicate 
the battle-field, the point of painful doubl to unwilling 
Bkeptics, of fear to timid believers, of defiant arrogance 
to the enemies of Christianity. What docs it matter 
whether God used a shorter or a Longer time, direct or 

Ondary means— whether nt the first he made the germ 
or the complete organism? For the heart cries out, not 
for a method, for a philosophy, for a plan of the uni- 
verse, but for the living, loving God, the Jehovah 
Shepherd. Having this assurance, this presence, we 

need fear no evil. In the beginning God was, and he 
is forever the dwelling-place of his people. 

Speaking of the above theory, Berber! Spencer says : 
u In whatever way it is formulated, or by whatever lan- 
guage it is obscured, this ascription of organic evolution 
to some aptitude naturally possessed by organisms, or 
miraculously imposed on them, is anphilosophical. It 
explains nothing— is a Bhaping of ignorance into the 
semblance of knowledge. . . . 'This assumption of a 
persistent formative power, inherent in organisms, and 
making them unfold into higher forms, is an assumption 

DO more tenable than that of special creations, of which. 

indeed, it is but a modification, differing only by the fu- 



THE REAL T881 E 315 

; of separate unknown pro< ato a oontinaons un- 

known |»n> •■• — . " 

\o, ben< iil)oiii us wo msiy, thrre are bu1 the two posi- 
tions -with Godj or without God, And the real issue is: 
The absolute supremacy ol matter and force; the absence 
of all intelligent power: " the conception of the origin of 
all living things and man. with the idea of divine crea- 
tion thrown out," — or, "There is one God and Father of 

all, who is above all, and through all, and in all." 

Either all things arc the chance outgrowth of chemical 
elements, a fortuitous combination of atoms, or "the 
worlds were framed by the word of God, bo that things 
which are seen were not made of things which do ap- 
pear." f 

We care little tor methods, being satisfied thai with 
Infinite Love and Power enthroned over the universe 
everything will be well done and every interest justly 
irded, without our taking thought or borrowing 
trouble. We are content that God should work with 
the small or the immense, with atoms or worlds, and 
that " with him one day should be as a thousand years, 
or a thousand years as our day." 

But when men ask with a sneer, " Where is the prom- 
of his coming? For all things continue as they were 



* Spencer's " Principles of Biology 

f Though the word "world " used in the plural form in Ileb. 
\i. a may be translated age8 t y< I no doubt it refers to the mate- 
rial universe, though this interpretation of it is not essential ; for 
if God by his providence is molding and guiding the ages, this 

as truly gives good ground for hope and faith as that "the: 
world," the cosmos, " was made by kirn." 



316 uvnro QUESTIONS. 

from the beginning ;" when they declare the throne in 
the heavens vacant, the scepter of Almighty wisdom a 
broken reed, a useless toy or romance tor childhood ; 
wl ini matter is so deified as to make God's providence an 
impertinent interference, and material things self-pos- 
sessed of such virtue, efficacy, and harmony thai the 
I ator can only come within their realm, the realm of 
physical continuity, as an intruder by a Bort of avulsion; 
when Evolution is used to teach, not the method of God, 

bul a Godless met hod,- then we feel thai the real issue of 

the hour is before us. It is no longer a question of way- 
ami means to which we may be indifferent and yel 
through faith possess all things: it is no longer a qu< 
tion of philosophy, bu1 of destiny ; not rf interpretation, 

bul of eternal hope or despair. 

The Theory of Evolution is, things grow. u Nothing 
in nature is produced all at once, in a complete or fin- 
ished t'orm." All organisms, vegetable and animal, up 
to man. have come by development and transmutation 
from the simplest Conns. Nol only so; but it is declared 
that the same is true of the moral world; that all history is 
a record of growth not of divine discipline and instruc- 
tion, hut of necessary, unbroken unfoldingsor progress by 
immutable law; there is no break in the order of pro- 
gression, no place tor divine Providence; the law of 
continuity is the verdicl of fate, and everything every 
principle, Influence, volition-- belongs to an unbroken 
line of cause ami effecl ; all moral like all physical growth 
is by inevitable and insensible modifications alone. 

It is nol that things succeed each other progressively 
in the march Of time. It is not that the lower is made 



THE real issue 317 

minister to I lie higher, or is the basis tor a nobler 
;m end, A- a theory Evolution banishes from 
the world all design and adaptation, treating with con- 
tempt tin 1 idea that nature reveals intelligence. Mr. 
Darwin says the doctrine thai one thing was made for 
another, or the doctrine of final causes, u if true, would 
be absolutely fatal to my theory." No, nothing ei 
for a purpose, or ia prophetic of any attainment. The 
eye was not math- to Bee, nor the ear to hear, nor the 
nerves to feel. The fin of the fish and the wing of the 
bird were not given that they might swim and fly, bu1 
these organs were needed, and they grew ! ( m this prin- 
ciple \\ is a little strange that while men for ages have 
desired to fly, the best developed cannot as yet show a 
feather ! There is no creation, bui there is progress by 
a gradual transmutation of one species of organic life 
into another, from the simple to the more complex. 

moved and guided alone by material force. These are 

some points of t he theory. 

Dr. J: W. Draper said in an address : "The hypoth- 

of evolution will not admit that there has been any 
intervention of the divine power. . . . There is main- 
tained a balance in nature, automatically adjusted to 
the sum-total of animal life — automatically, and not by 
any interference of Providence: a £ad of greal value in 
connection with the theory of evolution. . . . The hy- 
pothesis of evolution is directly opposed to that of crea- 
tion. The former reposes on the universal reign of law; 
creation, on the arbitrary act of God. The dominion of 
law is everywhere manifest. The capricious intrusion 
of a supernatural agency has never yet occurred. , , , 



318 UVINQ QUESTIONS, 

Common-sense revolts against the idea thai the trans- 
formations we see in organisms and in the earth are due 
to divine intervention; they must be due to natural law." 

And still this Doctor, too, is harping on a baseless fancy. 
For who believes in "divine interf erence" ? I><> Chris- 
tians believe in God as "a capricious intruder" ? in a 
God of anarch y, of misrule ? Ji' they do; if so benighted, 
ill-taught, as to believe in an "arbitrary" or despotic 
God; and if this theory comes with a new, an original 
revelation, assuring as for the first thai the Father above 
-*is without variableness or shadow of turning," thus 
freeing us from the worst possible heathenism, -then 
indeed is Evolution a precious doctrine, it is "pure gold 
like unto clear glass." 

Bui how impossible is this! Hot a thought or word 
can he added to the suhlinie teachings of the Bible in 
giving us assurance of the infinite fidelity of God. 
Evolutionists may bleach the lily and beautify the rose; 
they may make the diamond more brilliant, the rainhow 
more splendid; they may gild the light and polish tin* 
sun: but they cannot add to the dory of the God and 
father of our Lord Jesus Christ as lie is presented for 
our faith, reason, love, and worship in the Gospel. 

There is to the Christian "Creation and Providen* 
l»ut in neither do we conceive of divine act ivity as des- 
potic, without reason, order, and beneficence; on the 

contrary, we look up with confidence to a glorious Per- 
Bonalityj whose wisdom and love are the lighl and law of 

his will, and whose will is the origin of all force, order, 
life, and beauty. "My father worketh even until now, 
and I work," said Jesus. It is this presence and work- 



THE UEAL 188UE 819 

mi:, tli . ity, thai is the eternal 

pledge of the continuity of nature, of the stability of the 
unj 

Th< of universal law and the u idea of creation ;" 

the aw and "all the transformations we see in 

the earth," these statements are no1 opposed to each 
other, nor inconsistenl with faith in the direct adminis- 
tral Almighty God. t€ i ommon-sense" does not 

revolt against the idea thai [nfinite Wisdom and Power 
declare their activity by perfect order, by the marshal- 
ing of a tun i>. and the jarless music of the spheres. Bui 
it does revolt against the idea that inert matter, the 
mere chemical elements, can of themselves reveal the 
highest thought, the most recondite knowledge; can 
teach the ripest minds the Bublime principles of science. 
For if common-sense sees anything in the order of na- 
ture, it sees a revelation of intelligence, of wise design ; 
not the power of matter, the work of chance ; not even 
of law ; but, "the finger of God." 

What confusion arise- in attempting to make an im- 
possible distinction — to contrast the administration of 
Law with the administration of God ! As if law could 
administer itself, and as if God could only administer 
his will without law. fitfully, capriciously ! 

The materia] universe is a vast library in which we 
may find, if we are able to read these books of God, a 
complete "Connection of the Physical Sciences" pub- 
lished by the Infinite One, — that the wisest, however, are 
as yet unable fully to interpret. How is this possible 
with nothing but matt.']- and motion ? (an we conceive 
of the sublime architecture of the heavens as a possibility 



320 LIVING QUESTIONS 

without an infinite mind, an omnipotent hand? Dr. 
Draper tells us thai "nature never geometrizes, never 
arranges." Be it bo. Bui there is perfed arrangement, 
mathematical exactness, infinite engineering! Can we 
believe that on " this brave o'erhanging firmament, this 

niajotieal roof," there has been WTOUghl Out without 

mind, without though! or design, such examples in dia- 
gram and quantity, in scale, gradation, and line, "in 
curvesand circles and ellipses," as to fill the most learned 
with awe and wonder at the revelations of the midnight 
sky? 

"The human intellect, after years of trial, on its lad- 
der of lighl has mounted into the gallery of our firma- 
ment, probed through the ranks five hundred deep of 
orbs that Bwing in its dome, — yes, lifted itself out upon 
the roof of this .-tar-tiled St. Peter's of space, and gazed 
off thence upon the milky gleam of the spires of other 
cathedral firmaments that rise in the astral City of 

God. 3 

Bui if these discoveries, these studies of genius, fill us 

with surprise, how infinite the wisdom, how omnipotent 
the hand, that reared this sidereal tabernacle! hit like 
the Earned temples on the Nile, whose inner sanctuary is 
found occupied by the mummy of a reptile or a cat ? Is 
this " cathedral boundless as our wonder" the shrine of 
mud buill by and for uothing hut matter? 

If. as we have -aid, it is impossible for our God to be 
an immanent power, without revealing that power and 
presence by disorder, by the infraction of law, then we 

are driven to one of two conclusions. Either lie is an 



Rev. Thomas Starr King. 



Tin: REAL ISSUE, 831 

absentee I teity, baying at the beginning decreed all, B 
all, and, havij a to matter one eternal impulse along 

the grooves of fate, thru withdrawn to Borne unimagin- 
able sphere or limbo, leaving us Fatherless and the world 
Godless, relegating all to the tender mercies of " natural 
action," to the survival of the hardest and toughesl : 
or, on the other hand, we must conclude there is no G 
— never was; and thai the order of nature is "a lucky 
throw of the dice," all this seeming wisdom and design a 
mere u chance-shot,- a chance-shot from a chance-charge 
of a chance-gun, accidentally loaded, pointed at random 
and fired ofl by chance." 

There [g not much to choose between these theories. 

We need a faith, not that God was, but that he />•, an 
ever-present Father. How mysterious, if we are Godless, 

this universarhungering after the divine! If man is 
merely an evolved animal, — in his entirety of the earth 
earthy, without supernatural relationship or Burrounding, 
— from whence comes this universal cry after the spiritual, 

from whence his religious intuitions? They can come 
neither from heredity nor environment, and hence im- 
ply a fatal break in the- boasted continuity of nature, a 
break in our unfolding; for they point to something 

above the material. Here is disorder — man so much at 

i 

war with himself and his surroundings, so false to his 
brute ancestry, that he has a deep, universal, abiding 
impulse — the most influential fact of his being and his 
history, the most potential quality of his humanity — that 
is in opposition to the universe, that is an effect without 
a cause : an impulse that is an impeachment of the wis- 
dom and power of Nature and her laws, to make her 



322 LIVING QUE8TI0N& 

childreD true to themselves, to their position, their pros- 
pects, and their environment ! 

u A single sigh towards the future and the better is 
more than all geometrical demonstrations of God. w 
And whatever our theories, from all heights and depths 
of our humanity comes the cry of the soul for the Liv- 
ing God— for the Loving Father ! From civilized and 
3avage alike; from heathen altars and enlightened 
homes; from every people, without respect to tribe or 
nation, comes the Bign of the one touch of God — an 
impulse heavenward a common cry after the Great 
Spirit, after the source of being and the Judge of all — 
"0 thai I knew where I might find him !" "I beseech 
thee. Bhow me thy glory !" 



XVI. 

Tin; Rial [S8UB : A DISCOURSE on EVOLUTION. 

I\\r i Si I «>m> 

"There is one (iod and Father of all, who is above all, and 
through all, and in all." — Ephssiam iv. & 

Tiikri: are those who maintain that the modern hy- 
pothesis of EvolutioD presents clearly the divine method 
in creation and providence. While confessing them- 
selves to be its disciples, yet they believe in a "spirit- 
ual, personal, intelligent world-ground." These take 
practically the Biblical view ; for in the conflict between 
religion and materialism this is the one point at issue: 
God as the source, or Matter — " atomic development" — 
as the ground, of all. 

But while there are those who believe in evolution as 
the result of a supernatural involution, yet most of the 
advocates of this theory regard it, not as a divine 
method, but as a complete substitute for both the 
agency and the presence of God. That there can be 
anything within us or around us, to suggest and sustain, 
as reasonable, our faith in an Almighty Father, they de- 
clare to be impossible — an illusion; for their reign of uni- 
versal law is the banishment of God from the universe. 

"The hypothesis of Evolution is directly opposed to 
creation, and all within or without us is the lasting reg- 

323 



324 uvi\<; QV&STlOM 

>r of physical influences; the capricious intrusion of 
BQpernatnra] agency baying never yel occurred. ,J This 
is their position. 

While the christian certainly does not believe in 
divine interference, intrusion, or tnisrule, yet be belie 
in divine agency — in a " God who is Father of all, who 
is above all, and through all, and in all: in whom we 
live and have our being." Bis doctrine of law is, thai 
"it has nothing like existence, bul is simply a general 
expression cither of fad or of the rule according to 
which some agent proceeds." This agent is God, and 
all laws arc the rule of his action : for "the only caus- 
ality he knows is that of living mind, w and hence to 
him all force or power is the expression of Spirit, of 
will — of conscious five volition, of personality. Matter 
may be and is the recipient, hut mind is the only con- 
ceivable originator of force. Hence the Christian bows 
reverently to the sublime doctrine of Moses in (ienesis 

that Spirit is firsl — mind above matter, "the spiritual 
above the phenomenal, thought before thing, intelligence 

co-ordinate with being." And not only is this the 

earliest hut the one reasonable account of creation; for 
in looking at the cosmos, our need is, not the material 
for its construction, not the timber, but the Builder; 

not world-stuff, hut an Infinite Architect: wisdom to 

design, and power to sustain. 

But this new Genesis of deified matter leave-, practi- 
cally, nothing for God to do; as it assures us, " a super- 
natural agencyhas never yet occurred. " Mattel' with its 

ntial inertia, without thought, design, or adaptation, 
built and runs the universe. If this is thinkable, it 



TBS REAL 

18 simply atheism. Ii:i; i; is not, for sanity cannot eon- 

i active matter and inert, motionless mind; we 
cannot conceive of matter as tin- source of causation, 

i of its imitating perfectly the highecri intelligence in 
the most ingenious and intricate d( the most tar- 

reaching and beneficenl purposes. 

Therefore, as we Baid in the former part of this dis- 
course, our Christian evolutionists do n«>t find in this 
theory a desirable and peaceful via media, where the 
doubtful and the dogmatic, the pietist and the philoso 

pher, the saint and the savant, may rejoice together in 
the complete harmony of Religion and Science ; for in 

bet there are only t lie two views, either the doctrine of 
our text— the doctrine of Genesis and the Gospel— or 
that which the fool utters when he says in his heart, 
" There isnoGodP 

Some of the great lights of modern Evolution claim 
that nature, or the material universe, is absolutely with- 
out thought or intelligent design. They tell us that 
"nature never geometrizes, never selects, knows nothing 
of fitness or adjustment, but is forever maintained auto- 
matically and not by any interference of Providence." 

"This automatic action/' says one of its ardent apos- 
tles, "is a fact of great value in connection witli the 
theory of Evolution." 

Now here is a plain statement of Dr. Draper's; but 
because of certain well-known principles it is impossible 
for us to accept it. We know what an automaton is, 
but we can no more believe in spontaneous force than in 
spontaneous generation; in a power-producing and self- 
acting machine than in a self-made or man-made "per- 



326 LIVING QtTB8TI0m 

petna] motion. n We cannot conceive of nature as an 

automaton, or as acting automatically, Le., without an 
outside force or agent to Bustaiu and direct Its action. 
Matter is inert; it cannot originate force — this belongs 

alone to mind; it cannot originate force unless it can 
produce God. We know that matter cannot act, and of 
course cannot act intelligently. Here we agree with the 
evolutionist; hut just here also the harmony ceases, for 
he, having only matter, " only physical influences, only 
material execution" (vet claiming to he passing rich), 
must deny design and thought in any and all of its forms 
in nature; not, however, because he doubts the virtue of 
matter less, but the providence of God more; not that 
he distrusts the physical, hut dreads the divine touch 
and presence as u capricious intrusion." 

Vet may we not just as reasonably ascribe mind, 
thought, plan, to matter, as to invest it with force or 
automatic action ? Indeed, I see no other possible way 
out. Design and intelligence are no more proper attri- 
butes of mind, of spirit, than are force and energy. The 
evolutionist must have a new definition of matter, or lie 
will be hopelessly entangled. For, looking upon the 
world as a machine, — upon its phenomena as auto- 
matic, — we cannot conceive that it is self-sustaining — 
"a perpetual motion;" that it was dowered with force 
in some past eternity; for we know that the dissipation 
of energy would have brought all to a stand-still long 
ago. We cannot suppose a clock moved by weights that 
would never run down, or by a spring that would never 
need winding up. We cannot suppose a locomotive or 
it mighty Corliss engine made so potential all at once, 80 



////•: ttSAl ISSUB, 

Btored with energy, u to ran on and on forever. We 
cannot imagine a lighted candle to burn without wast- 
ing itself; it will hum out in time unless replenished, 
u for waste, degradation," ae Prof. Balfour Stewart well 
>a\ annol be eternal." The fixed laws of na- 

ture, thru, as we have said, demand an agent -a Spirit- 
power above, different from, matter — to originate, direct, 
and sustain the forces of the universe, 

This notion of automatic action necessarily (Ionics 
that nature has any trace of thought or purpose. As 
we ha\ . Darwin admits that the doctrine of COS-' 

mica! design would be fatal to bis hypothesis. This, 
then, becomes a test of the theory. Let us briefly exam- 
ine it at this point. 

We know that, by some means, order, life, organism 
have come to our planet, and that everywhere matter 
has attained to conditions and relations implying intel- 
ligence that, to say the least, fairly indicate to the un- 
prejudiced observer the presence of wise design, suggest- 
ing consummate skill and the most careful adaptations. 
Now, we may well ask, has modern discovery found in 
matter and motion anything — any virtue, any essential 
quality — to which we may refer all this as to an adequate 
cause ? As we cannot attempt a survey of this wide, 
almost infinite, field, we will confine our notice to a few 
of the most familiar instances indicative of directing 
wisdom and a creating hand ; of a wise, beneficent de- 
signer, — instances that plainly reveal the " finger of 
God." We are to remember that, according to this the- 
ory, no organ, faculty, or quality, no gift or tendency, 
of plant or animal, was designed for it or given to it; 



828 i.i vim; QUESTIONS. 

but Bomehow it helped itself and was aided by its envi- 
ronment, until it came at last to possess all desired pow- 

and adaptations. " Environment, need, habit, 
lection/' — these are the potencies. How the plant or 
animal could live during the long period of its endow- 
ment, or its preparation to live, we arc ool told. How 
animals that depend for their living upon Bight orsoenl 
could wait for these organs and endure their long fast 
is unexplained. 

According to the theory, the bird docs not brood her 
not to hatch \\cr young; neither does the bee gather 
honey Cor any end or purpose. Both these acts — all sim- 
ilar acts — arc simply fortunate as means of reproducing 
or preserving life, though thai was not the design. And, 

tor that matter, the nest of the bird, the cell of the I 
the stores of the squirrel, the house of the beaver, the 

web of the spider, the cities of the ant, and bo on end- 
lessly, none of these, not hing in nature, reveals wisdom, 

plan, or purpose, but simply a blind, mechanical, ma- 
terial result, "the lasting register of physical influ- 
ences." It hardly seems possible that such ideas can 
prevail where a liberal share of common-sense is en- 
joyed. Bui we must receive far more marvelous conclu- 
sions if we are discipled by the advocates of this new 

gospel. 

A recent writer, \V. II. Savage, in a " Phi Beta Kap- 
pa" address at Bowdoin College, expresses great sur- 
prise "that even college professors still enforce upon 
their Classes this thought of divine wisdom as presented 
in natural theology." Thai is, these men, who ought 
t<> know better, are yet BO foolish as to call attention to 






THE REAL T& 

indica! • 1 1 1 as seen in the earth and 

heavens. And this writer, in behalf of Evolution, telle 

us that the ear was not made that ire mighl hear; it 
reveals do intention, expi no though! or adapta- 

tion irhateyer. Hut we wanted to hear, to learn the 
news, — and the pulsations of air, co-operating with this 

re, a; ilted in the organ of hearing. 

% - M.r 5, " ifl the creation <»f the vibra- 

tions that convey Bounds. . . . Should these vibrati 
now cran', the ear would in time disappear from the 

inisin. Renew them, and they would re-create the. 

m that should perceive them." It is true, if there 
were no Bound there could he do or perception of 

Bound : hut that th vibrations of air create the 

m of hearing, is Bprawling logic. We know that 
use modifies all our powers; but how we felt the n< 
of hearing, or came to desire this sense before we knew 
anything of sound, we are not told. Then how' should 
or could this vibration concentrate it-elf to a single 
point, and set to work there ? One would suppose that, 
as sound-waves strike the whole body, they would make 
ears over the entire surface. — make the whole form 
auricular: or that those who lived in noisy places — by 
the sounding sea or by a thundering cataract — would 
have more and longer ears than those dwelling in quiet 
localities. It is not easy to understand why this all- 
powerful, all-sapient vibration should choose two poii 
on either side of the head, and just there make perfect 
acoustic instruments. To believe this, we must beli( 
that mere sound possesses supremest sense — vibrations 
of air must be endowed with superhuman wisdom ; we 



330 li vim; Qtr£8TT0K6 

must believe thai Bound understands perfectly its own 

laws, and bow to apply them. What amazing wisdom 

does this imply! The ablest scientists in the world, 
thongh they possessed the requisite power, could notj 
guided by their own knowledge, complete and ad just the 
organ of hearing. 

Examine the seal of this sense: the shell-like beauty 
of the outer car ; the marvel- of construction and adap- 
tation that are found in every part, — the tympanum, 
the labyrinth, the chain of little hones, the cells, the 
canals, the fluid, the lining, the delicate filaments of 
the auditory nerve: — examine all, and, unless you hare 
a theory to sustain, you will certainly believe that this 
perfect instrument was made 1 to hear with — was made 
that we might hear ; while you cannot conclude that it 
was the result of sound without sense — "the creation of 
vibrations that convey sounds/ 3 

Of course this hypothesis of Evolution teaches the 
Bame in regard to sight. The desire to see and the ac- 
tion of light have made the eye. The doctrine is, the 
organ of vision was not made or given that we might see, 
— not at all : hut we see because we have vision. If one 
can examine this most delicate and complicated instru- 
ment, st udy the anatomy of Bight, and after all fairly con- 
clude that it reveals no finality, no design, no God, then 
I must conclude that though there he design, though 
there he a God, still it is impossible to prove their exist- 
ence, impossible to receive any testimony or believe any 
truth. 

The idea of fortuity in the structure of the eye is un- 
thinkable. That blind matter, acting on the principles 



THE REAL IBBUE 831 

of e3 tience and Bhowing Biiperhumaii knowled 

should Bay, u Lei there be lighl to living oreatures" — 
this is («) suppose, ii"! ;i miracle, hut an amazing prod- 
igy. It is to Buppose an effect without a cause; it ap- 
peals, not to our reason, hut to such childish credulity 
as was once charmed, fascinated, bj Btories of useful 
giants and benevolent Fairies. Sir [saac Newton, tilled 
with reverent Burprise at the marvels Found in the or- 
gan of vision, asked, "Could Be who made t he eye have 
been ignorant of the laws of optics?" But now we are 
told that this wonderful, exquisite apparatus is entirely 
mindless in its construction — a lucky hit, altogether a 

fortuitous result ! 

In this manner Evolution provides for and bestows 

every Organ of sense and every quality of mind and 
body. Perfume makes the nose: though how its gentle 
touch could make so prominent a feature is still a mys- 
tery. Perhaps smells were stronger and had more ex- 
ecutive ability in the far-off past ! 

But how and why the organs of sight and hearing, of 
taste and smell, should be local, while the sense of feel- 
ing is universal,— distributed over the entire body, — I 
am sure cannot be answered by these theorists, or by any 
who deny all-wise design in our creation and outfit. 
Light, sound, and perfume must impinge on our bodies 
without respect to place; while if environment, if exter- 
nal stimuli, can produce any organ of sense, we must 
suppose that the influence of contact would be localized, 
and a special place given to the sense of touch. But 
what wisdom and beneficence are here revealed, not 
only in the placing of other organs, but especially in 



332 LIVING QUESTIONS, 

making the whole body sensitive! This is a rough and 
often a delusive world. We are surrounded bycountL 
imiee — enemies thai oome by stealth or undercover 

of the darkness. Sence we need myriads of sentinels 
to warn n- sleepless detectives, such as our nerves of 
feeling supply, to guard every avenue by which the most 
outspoken or most insidious can approach to injure or 

kill. 

Thus if we look at our endowments and surroundings 
as expressive of divine wisdom, as tokens of infinite 
care, we are constantly tilled with wonder and gratitude 

at the power and love we see revealed. There is in 

this view no confusion of thought : we Bee a perfect har- 
mony of cause and effect : while the universal feeling of 
reverence finds its proper objeel ; the sense of obligation 

and desire for worship find a holy shrine : hope springs 
immortal in the heart, belting the future with bows of 
promise; the assurance of almighty power and of divine, 
personal sympathy makes all things sacred, filling the 

soul with sweet peace and joy unspeakable. 

But, OD the other hand, if we deny all purpose, all 
intelligence; andaccepl the idea of "automatic causa- 
tion, w then we must make matter act — act as if it had 
intelligence; choose as if it had free will, as if it loved — 

a- if il loved the righl and detested the wrong; as if it 
had often a keen Bense of justiceand of strong sympathy 
for virtue and truth. We must make it more skillful 
than the wi-eM. more gigantic than giant8; divine in 

love, infinite in righteousness, and Godlike in attribute. 

Bui we cannot d<» this: and either there is an immanent, 
righteOUfi God, <>r all nature with one voice declares and 



THE tUBAl IS81 I 

rover a holy lie a blessed, peace-giving, en- 
nobling falsehood. 
On thispoinl there is still an importanl consideration. 

For we claim to Bee " design " — the hand of I l-od uol 
only in the material, bul also in fche moral world, the 
world of human action and responsibility. And by Borne 
means there is in this sphere do! only a solemn sense 

obligation, bul it is forever pervaded by a power thai 
eannot be automatic — "a power thai makes for right- 
eousnesses force that makes righteous, or, failing of 
this, becomes a power of retribution. Indeed we sec a 
prevailing, a mysterious moral selection and survival, 
not of the tough, the muscular and selfish, but of tbe 
meek and humble, the self-sacrificing and just— a sur- 
vival of purity and righteousness, plainly revealing the 
will of God in the wide realm of human life and action. 

While there is an all-pervading principle of continu- 
ity, yet, instead of blind, automatic action, we can but 
see that the things and influences about us are con- 
nected with the past as a fulfillment, and that they are 
also prophetic, preparatory, — indicating and producing 
future conditions. Xo doubt every atom and soul be- 
longs to a great system of mutual dependence and sup- 
port; all nature being bound, blended, by a spirit of 
perfect unity. Bur, this proves nothing for the Evolu- 
tionist,, unless he can also prove that this succession, 
dependence, and progress are undesigned, resulting me- 
chanically, necessarily; and that all transition is always 
by slow, insensible gradations, nature never presenting a 
crisis or moving abruptly, never permitting revolution 
or cataclysm, but producing all the fruits of time — ma- 



334 II\I\<, QUESTIONS 

terial, animal, intellectual, moral- — by an imperceptible 
essital ion. 

Bui pre are quite Burethis Fundamental principle of 
evolution cannot be sustained. For we not only see 
progress by Blow unfoldings, "like Beed casl into the 
-round and bringing forth in order the blade, the ear, 
and the full corn f but how often, al leasi inhuman 
history, we may also see the mosl Budden and radical 
changes! Love come-, or anger, or ambition, or ava- 
rice, or some impassioned form of genius, breaking up 
in a moment the great deep of the heart, of society, and 

sweeping away all the firm-set barriers of conservatism 

and habit. Our personal history is but a symbol of the 
changes and revolutions that come to nations -revolu- 
tions marked by floods of passion, by heroism or coward- 
ice, thai alter in a brief period the map of the world and 
the destiny of millions. There certainly lias been 
>wth by imperceptible evolution, but in the history of 
the moral world progress has also seen "a nation born 
in a day," according to the divine promise. 

" The old order changeth, yielding place to new; 
And God fulfills himself in many way-. 

Lest one good custom should corrupt the world." 

And all progress has been secured by various means. 
Now God has wrought by the crawling glacier, and anon 
by the rending thunder of the earthquake. An in- 

of the sea, the feeble polyp, lays the corner-stone and 
builds from the deep the foundations of a continent, 
slowly toiling through dateless ages; or we behold the 
omnipotence of the cyclone bursting over fated lands 
out of a perfect calm. Thus, while slow unfolding lias 



tee //am/, xaax 

its place, bo, too, revolutions haye their mis-ion, in the 

plan of < tod. 

W i -hs in history, and behind them 

great men who are no! the result of the common forces 
about them, noi the product of their environment or of 
the educational influences of We aee men like 

Paul or Lut her, wh< \ i surprise, a revolution, 

an "untimely birth." To our world and race, Christ 
was again "the beginning of the creation^of God." Ee 
was noi a flower of Judaism, nol the fruii of the Augus- 
tan age; but u the full corn in the ear" of a perfect hu- 
manity, and the epiphany of divine glory, who could not 
have been molded and matured alone by the homes and 
Bchools of Bethlehem or Nazareth. Evolution will not, 
can not, solve the mystery of the Christian era ; for there 
area thousand " missing links" between the philosopher 
of Athens, the supreme heathen pontiff at Borne, the 
high-priesl at Jerusalem, and this "Carpenter of Naza- 
reth," who, out of the darkness of a dark world, arose, a 
Sun of Righteousness, and whose golden beams have 
filled these two millenniums with celestial, healing 
light! 

Darwinian Evolution teaches, or admits as a truth of 
science in one instance at least, that which in all other 
cases it regards as a violation, an intrusion, of natural 
order. It teaches that, once upon a time, when the cool- 
ing earth firs! became a possible home for living things, 
God wrought one or two miracles by breathing the 
breath of life into the simplest forms: and hence the or- 
ganic world began its march — began to be — by the spe- 
cial flat of the Almighty! But this surrenders the whole 



336 uvi\<; QUESTIONS, 

question and directly admits of " final causes." Tin 
bowing reverently to Moses and his book of Genesis; for 
it is inconceivable that infinite wisdom and beneficence 
could ad without design— could bestow the gift of life 
aimlessly, fortuitously. 

And in this admission we are reminded of the Apostle's 
sweeping declaration, " Whosoever offends or stum 1 
in one point of the law, be is guilty of all." The Evolu- 
tionist here — htmself being the judge — breaks the boasted 
law of continuity; breaks the whole principle of neces- 
sary , materialistic unfolding; breaks down the entire fab- 
ric of an automatic Godless order. While he is contin- 
ually charging the Christian with the absurdity of his 
faith in Divine Providence, we may well say: " Physi- 
cian, heal thyself:'* "Casl this mote of miracle out of 
thine own eye before BO officiously and without reason 
seeking to caeri out my beam of the eternal immanence 
and activity of God." 

We must still notice that essential, fundamental doc- 
trine of Evolution— the transmutation of species. 

We see an orderly succession in the organic, intellec- 
tual and spiritual realm.-. Can this he accounted for 
without directive wisdom that is beyond and ahove this 
plane of being? Can life and its changes he explained 
by the convenient formula, " the sequence of events" — 
or, u there is a law of persistent force acting on the uni- 
verse"? 

( )r. taking higher ground, we may ask : Has God chosen 
this method to develop the organic and inorganic worlds? 
Etas he multiplied species by making one grow out of an- 
other, or \>\ making many grow out of one ? While we 



THE REAL ISSUE, 331 

!iui hear hie voic e his hand, is ii byslow trans- 

formi8mfl thai hie no^ filled with Buoh 

countle8fl varieties, or is it, as the Bible indicates, by 
giving an original, separate parentage to each spec 

etable and animal? Have all the distinct varieties of 
life fish, reptile, mammal, the rose, the oak, the palm, 
the serpent, eagle, dove, ho 'ilia, and man — grown 

out of two or three primordial forms, grown oul of each 
other, or have they a distincl origin divinely given at 
the first? 

The advocates of Evolution claim that, as you trace 
etable and animal species or races backward, they 
slowly, surely converge, the lines of life, or organism, 
coming at last to a single rude form — the parent of all. 
( >r, as yon go forward, the drift of organic existence di- 
verges, differentiating into all the varied tribes of the 
world. Little by little, ever reaching after tin- better 
through those pptenl means of grace, .-election, heredity, 
environment, species have been evolved, the higher grow- 
ing out of the lower, ever on and up, so that we have, 
for history, order from chaos, the organic from the in- 
organic, flowering plants growing out of the fiowerless; 
then Bkull-less animals and fishes growing out of these 
low forms; reptiles growing out of fishes, and })\V(\> out 
of reptiles; mammals on t of birds, and so on, — species 
unfolding species, until, from an apelike animal, we 
come at last to man. 

But is this history ? Certainly not ! It is unadulter- 
ated theory. The progressive character of creation and 
the order of organic succession cannot be more clearly 
or perhaps more accurately stated than in Genesis, while 



I.IYrx<r QUESTIONS, 

this vision oi the Spirit of God moving and forming 
through its symbolic days, presents a cosmogony to which 
the heavens and the earth respond with a distinct, em- 
phatic Amen. 

The integrity of species as presented in the first chap- 
ter of the Bible La far more scientific than the transfor- 
mation theory, or the elaborate artificial doctrine of 
u natural .-election." Just here Evolution utterly fails 
it cannot respectably unfold itself. For that like pro- 
duces like, and that there is an impassahle harrier divid- 
ing the streams of life, is one of the best -est ahlished 
principles of botany and of natural history. Perfect or- 
der and organic purity were guaranteed from the begin- 
ning by the divine command given to every living thing 
to bring forth "after his kind/' And there is no ex- 
ec])! ion to this primeval law. The integrity of species 
is perfect, their lines for a thousand generations on- 
broken ; the genealogical tables of the vast family of 
God are without break or blemish, confusion or misalli- 
ance. 

We may multiply varieties, as is well known by our 
stock-farmers, our bird-fanciers and gardeners. We 
may improve and modify to almost any extent, as Mr. 
Darwin has himself shown in his experiments of "arti- 
ficial .-election" with domestic pigeons. We may make 
hybrids among plants and animals; but hybridity is 
proof of distinct species, for with it we reach a limit — 
the immutable line between order and disorder, an im- 
passable barrier on which there is the divine legend, 
" Hitherto shall thou come, but no further." For 
keenest observation and multiplied experiment have at- 



'/•///•: URAL tS 

terly failed to Bhow that by any modification ortrans- 

formism a nvw s] BT6T has been or oan be produced, 

Mr. Darwin could gel surprising results under the law 
of heredity, by mixing his pigeons: but the last Bquab 
was as truly pigeon as the first, — he could no! evolve 
from pigeon blood anything except pigeon flesh and 
pigeon feathers. If by artificial selection he had - 

ded in evolving from his doves a unique water-fowl, 
or a bird of prey Bomewhere between a gyrf alcon and a 
woodpecker, or a new orchard Bongster bel ween the robin 
and the bluejay, then he would have had a good founda- 
tion for his theory. Hut the multiplication of varieties, 
whether of bird or beast, lias long been known and 

practiced. 

Bui these experiments of modification prove too much 

for Mr. Darwin's theory. "Artificial selection" im- 
plies design. All its factors and combinations are chosen 
in view of a definite end. Hence to reason from artifi- 
cial to natural selection, making the latter the factor in 
multiplying species, we must look upon nature as also 
working for an end, — as capable of choice. Bui such 
an admission is the surrender of the Darwinian theory. 
De Prepense in his "Study of Origins" says: "It 
is of no avail to deny the fixity of species; this is a fact 
to which our eyes bear witness. The stream of gener- 
ation in our day flows between well-defined hanks which 
it never overflows. Nothing could be more methodically 
determined and graduated than the life on our planet. 
Now how does Darwinism account for this stability, this 
palpable pause in the process of transformation ? Is it 
that these transformation.- tended to the realization of 



540 LtWfQ QUESTIONS. 

fixed designs, of which species now exhibit the plan? It 
avails oothing to say that the Bpeciesia capable of trans- 
forming itself. We see no such transformation. Spe- 
g have a character of fixity indicating at least a gtop- 

ping-place, a term readied, a L r <>al attained. . . . We 
cannot discover on any -pot of the -loin* a transforma- 
tion of Bpecies now going on. Eowever tar hack we go 
in geological records, we find the same distinction of 
species in the animal and vegetable world." 

No new species by transmutation ! And this integrity 
of kind is one of the clearesl evidence- of directive wis- 
dom. Were there no impassable harriers, and were 
nature accessory to this supposed universal amalgama- 
tion, how quickly would field, forest and garden, earth, 
air and ocean, he tilled with boundless confusion ! When 
we consider the varieties of life, the impulses that pre- 
vail, the persistency of vitality in plant and animal, 
this unspotted purity of nature through dateless ,i 

becomes to the thoughtful a striking miracle. 

Here is a crucial test of the theory of Evolution. If 
transmutation fails, it is fairly disproved. i\' this law 
of kind— or the bringing forth of "species by Bpecies, " 
as declared in Genesis to he the ordinance of (iod for 
ever] living thing, — if this is also declared to he abso- 
lute, inviolable law in the older hook of nature, then 
this modern notion of metamorphosis must go the way 

of the theory and hopes of the old alchemists. 

Perhaps there has always heen a belief in transmuta- 
tion, and we know that this faith, or credulity, lias at 

time- become an absorbing passion: and no wonder, 

when it promised boundless health and wealth. Once. 



////•: /;/;.! /. ISSUE* 341 

hope was based ,>n some marvelous change to be pro- 
duced in matter. Alchemists vainly toiled to break 
down the primal law by which atoms are marshaled in 
perfeci order and number to preserve the identity, sim- 
plicity, and the official virtue of the elements of the 
cosmos. These transmutationists were haunted by the 
thought that they could so mix and cross the lines and 
measures of God's chemistry as to make youth grow out 
of old age, and gold grow out of the baser metals ! 

The theory no* is, that by sonic means there may he. 
<>r there k a transmutation in the world of life, by 
which the lines of organic identity not only approach, 
hnt cross and vanish: the lower orders being changed 
into the higher— the leaden brute transmuted into the 
golden man ! 

Hut the same invariable laws that defeated thealchem- 
ist defy the Evolutionist. The beauty and fidelity of 
both the organic and inorganic worlds are secured by 
definite simples, by immutable elements whether of life 
or of matter. For while there are endless possible com- 
binations, while there is infinite flexibility, yet there is 
a limit— fixed, absolute. When the chemist has discov- 
ered the constituents of a compound, he knows that 
wherever this combination occurs there will always be 
the same product. Let him take by weight eight part 
of oxygen and one of hydrogen, and united they form 
water. No other elements and no other proportion can 
form this fluid; but these never fail— like begetting like, 
and everything "bringing forth after his kind." Then- 
is no crossing, no misalliance; for even the dead, dull 
things beneath our feet are not, ;ls Dr, Youmans says, 



343 uvi\<; QUESTIONS, 

"mere confused masses of matter, bul the] are pervaded 
through their Innermost oonstitution bj the harmony 
of numbers." 

We might well ask, u Why are all the dead Forces 
bound by God's own hand to keep their places under 
the law of equivalent affinities, bo that not an atom of 
deviation is possible, while the developments of life i 
left without specific permanence P" But there is no 
Buoh abandonment. When life is added to matter, an- 
archy does Hot follow. 

Chemical elements that by analogy, as we have seen, 

may be compared to kinds or Bpecies have never been, 
nor can they be, transformed into something else. In 
regard to the identity of element or compound there 
cannot occur an atom of change in the change of atoms. 
If God thus guards the integrity of iron, lead, salt, and 
BUgar, species and varieties of the dead world, will he 
not also provide for the order and beauty of the living ? 
No more do the lines in animate nature blend or cr 
than the lines of classification that the chemist observes 

in the laboratory. 

Now the experience and observation of the world are 
in harmony with these principles of integrity and iden- 
tity. We never find any nondescript, unclassified plant 

or animal, living or dead ; that is, we never find link-. 
though there ifl BUCh a demand for them, such a ne< 

-it v. We never find any trace, or remains, to show when 

or where a species, or individuals of a species, were 

transformed or grew into something different and higher; 

thus BUpetseding, a- ESvolution demands, the kind from 

which they grew. Of course no living Bpecies has pro- 



////•: /,•/•: w T881 343 

dnced another and nobler one, tor the essential idea of 
the theory is that all living things illu rar« 

\i\:il of thl :." 

The difficulties of Sir. Darwin's theory of desoenl jusi 
at this point are multiplied because he does not, as 
many suppose b thai man comes directly from the 

ape, nor !'r«>ni any living animal. There are at 1< 
two reasons * h\ be i annot. First, the difference is too 
it between the besi developed ape and the poorest 
Bample of man. To transmute one from the otherwould 
imply an enormous leap over a wide organic space in- 

ad of the imperceptible, the little-by-little changes 
that are an essential pari of this hypothesis. The sec- 
ond reason is, Evolution declares man to be a growth 
resulting from " struggle n and "survival f hence, as 
with all other living things, the immediate predecessor 
of man must have been destroyed, absorbed in the strug- 
gle for life. The fitted survived ! Mr. Darwin gives a 
probable description of our immediate ancestor. 

But, as we were saying, the trouble is to find some 
trace, some proof of this most interesting arboreal ani- 
mal. Theory says he lived and was slain ; but there 
must be evidence of his identity and death. As yet, 
however, DO act of Imbeds corpus lias forced earth or 
ocean to give up the precious secrel — to produce the 
body, or even a hone ! And not only in regard to man, 
but in all the numberless cases of survival, the puzzle is 
to find the least trace of those slain in this struggle. We 
should expect these connecting links to he common and 
cheap enough. From the bottom of the Laurentian 
rocks to the top of our present world, — or the last layer 



344 LI VI Mi QUESTIONS. 

on the post-tertiary, — we should, according to this 
theory, find any number of fossil- marking the growth 
of the countless varieties thai have been evolved from 
"the one or two primordial forms." But nol a true 
link, or, as we -aid. a nondescript, can be found ! This 
would be impossible, it seems to me, if Darwinism were 
correct. The lines of life, as drawn on all the fossilifer- 

OUfl rocks, are parallel. Though we search, ransack 
rock and fen, quarry and gravel-pit, mine and cave and 
mountain, there has never yet been found, and never 
will he, an organic creature that in the order of descent 
has not, been derived from a being organized like itself. 

In conclusion, we will refer to a few established prin- 
ciple 

First All are agreed that there was a time when our 
world was lifeless; when neither vegetable nor animal 
existed. And now, after numberless experiments, scien- 
tific men also agree in the statement that life always 
implies antecedent life. " Spontaneous generation " 
is no longer advocated. There is no virtue in matter 
capable of bringing life from the lifeless. Where death 
ordeadness is involved vitality cannot be evolved! 

There isa break here— a accessary rupture of the law 
of continuity: for a lifeless globe must remain lifeless, 
unless some super-material power, some Life, gives life; 
thus abolishing deadness by an outside force that all 
the forms and elements of matter could not give to this 
torpid world. Our geologists in this agree with Moses in 
(Genesis; that is, in representing the earth as once de- 
void of all life. And he also states the general order of 
creation precisely as it is recorded on the rocks. Then, 



TBB tUBAL TBBUM 346 

in tlir Bimplesl ye1 sublimed language is which the 
Btory was ever told, he tella how life rain**: it \va 
ia forever, the gifl of God ! 

What can be more reasonable than this history of its 
origin? The Evolutionist here feels hie poverty, and Lb 
compelled to confess thai he can give do other; for he 
is forced toadmit within the realm of the material the 
ncy of the supernatural. II*- is obliged to have re- 
course to "the interference of God" — an expression of 
his own that is Ealse and beggarly, but an expression 
that truly presents his idea of that which he regards as 
the <>nc. exceptional ac1 of the AIniightj Father. u [n- 
terference," indeed 1 Bis position is, If God will only 
-rant the least touch of his power (for here we are power- 
less), and give the faintest possible spark of vitality jusl 
to start the procession, then we can clothe the naked 
world with flowery verdure; forthwith shall rise fair ranks 
of trees, and soon we may 

" Sec through this air, this ocean, and this earth, 
All mutter quick, and bursting into birth," 

Certainly this is neither scientific nor religious. Here 
is a complete failure of the theory ; for, as we have 

said, one touch of the spiritual, the supernatural, 
vitiates it as much as would a thousand miracles. And 
how does the Evolutionist know that God did not directly 
involve all the organic world in these primordial forms, 
making them germinant? But if possible and real, this 
would be the same in the ease of each plant and animal 
as an immediate creation. 

Second. As we have said above, there is no evidence 
that a new species has ever been produced by modifica- 



346 Livi\<, QtrBsnom 

tinii. While the advocates of this t beory bave much to 
of the potency of environment, habit, selection, and 
struggle ("V life, \ « t after all research and experiment 
we have no n«-u organism, qo proof that " even a sin. 

m has ever been produced " by these ureal factors in 
Ei olution, 

Thinl. So far back a- they have been traced, all lines 
<»f race or species are parallel; they are never found to 
blend or cross. Our ablesl teachers declare the notion 
<»f u insensible modifications" to be unfounded. Some 
of the very highesl botanical authorities, as .M. Naudin, 
tell us that "when notable changes are produced they 
OCCUr abruptly; while the appearance of new variet 
has always been sudden." Indeed, all research denies 
this idea of Fusion— Or rather of eonfusiun. Agassiz says, 
u There are parts of this continent formed by the accumu- 
lated shells of polyps, whose history can he traced hack 
two hundred thousand Years: vet not even the shadow 
of a variation can he detected," — the same to-day as when 

they commenced this mighty work. 

Dr. Dawson informs his readers thai " there are cata- 
logues of ninety-eighl Bpecies of mammals which inhab- 
ited Europe in the post-glacial period. Of these, fifty- 
en .-till exist unchanged in the least, and the remain- 
der have disappeared. Not one can be Bhown to have 
been modified into a new form. All the existing 
European mammal- extend hack in geological time at 
least as bras man, bo that since the post-glacial period 
no new Bpecies bave been introduced in any way. Fifty- 
en parallel lines of descent have in Europe rim on 
along with man, without change of material modification 



I m: REAL TSBl 847 

any kind. II re we have an accumulation of facts «»f 
profound significance. Man and his companion-mam- 
mals present from the first . lines, not oon- 

if they pointed to Borne common progenitor, 
but strictly parallel to each other." 

And so from every point of new we are Led to rejoice 
in the hope and faith of our fathers. We rejoice in 

a revelation of the wisdom and power and 
present tod. We rejoice in the Gospel of Christ as 

revealing that which meets every demand of the heart, 
as presenting a religion which we may embody in our 
lives and that will lead to the evolution of the truest, 
divines! manhood. And we especially rejoice in the 
trance the Gospel gives as, that "there is one God 
and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and 
in all. w 



XVII. 

THE Vim: and THE BRANCH. 

" Ami he brought him to Jesus." — John i. 4*J. 

What can seem more trivial than sued a statement! 
According to our imperfect estimates, how unimportant 

such an event ! And yet, have we imt learned that in 
the moral world there are no trifles? Have we not 
learned that the feeblest things are often of infinite im- 
portance? 

"Not many mighty, not many noble" men or deeds 
are found among the chosen means of <«<>d for the ful- 
fillment of his -rear designs. Hi> elections are never 
sensational, but humble. As rivers thai water a conti- 
nent have an obscure source far away amid mountain soli- 
tude-, BO he .-elects the feel>]e.-t mean.- for the grandest 

purposes. We see the splendor of his wisdom and 
power in the consummation, not the inception, of his 
plans. The pages Of history and the face of creation 
present countless parables to rebuke our vanity, arro- 
gance, and ambition. 

" Trifles — mere trifles, " we say; yet on these may de- 
pend the destiny of men, of nations, and of ages. The 
most Ear-reaching and influential incidents belong to 
the fa<t- of common life and common men. If you 

348 



THE 17. n /•: AND THE BRANOEL 349 

will read and observe attentively, you will be surprised 
to see how often 1 1 lorn and forecasl of man hae 

been al hull in his efforts to bend the future to bis will 
by what lie has regarded as mighty influences ; while, in 
the end, unnoticed trifles have been Tar stronger, reveal- 
inga power that works — nol to promote the ambitious 
policy of kings, hut for eternal righteousness, in silence, 
yel with re roe. 

In the beautiful history before as we have a striking 
instance of the divine, royal value of the simplest inci- 
dent. Andrew, a fisherman of Galilee, who had heard 
and who believed in the Saviour, "findeth his own 
brother, Simon, and he brought him to Jesus." 

Do you ask, Why record, and preserve for two thou- 
sand years, so trifling an even! as this? — But was it a 
trifle? We can tell of little else that Andrew did. 
There is no evidence that he was a greal preacher, gath- 
ering crowds about him, and by his eloquence lifting 
them out of darkness into light, out of sin into holiness. 
Hut there was one tiling he could do — this humble, be- 
lieving brother : " He went and called Peter, bringing 
him to Chrisl ; and Peter standing np in the name of 
the Crucified, three thousand were converted in one 
day"! 

"He brought him to Jesus." Why record this sim- 
ple incident? Because it presents to as the very spirit 
of the kingdom of Christ. Call this a trifle! Has it 
left no mark on the passing years, no deep groove like 
the touch of God's finger across the aires across the 
continents, in which the rivers of divine influence flow 
for evermor<? 



360 LIVING QUESTIONS 

What royal deed, whai acl ol daring, what achi< 
menl of heroism, what triumph of ambition or sacrifice 

of patriotism has so deeply, widely swayed the de-tii 

of men as the quiet, loving, brotherly act ot this Gali- 
lean peasant? It is more enduring than Lebanon, and 
will remain an example and an inspiration forever. And 

this, not by any accident, but because of its intrinsic 
importance; because this simple deed was of infinite 
value— of more consequence than many of the proudesi 

actfl of men. 

And it is the same now, after so long a time. There 
is nothing we can do so great, so far-reaching in its in- 
fluence, so blessed in its results, so immortal, so divine, 
as bringing a SOU] to Christ. It is this that gives value 
to life, that gives meaning to the Providence that BUS- 

tains and guides the world, Xot for the sake of cities, 

nations, dynasties; not for the sake of art, literature, 
government, does the sun shine, does the earth roll on 
its golden circuit, the ocean ebb and flow: but all things 
are by tlie word of Gk)d, that men may be brought to 
Christ 

This is neither cant nor fanaticism. How evident 
that as men are Christian — as they approach the stand- 
ard of Christ — do they become wise, strong, manly; and 
that nations become rich, prosperous, and happy as they 
Conform to the law and life of Jesus Chrisl ! Plainly 
enough, it is his inspiration that quickens the world to 
enterprise and advancement ; while the great moral re- 
forms that mark and bless our age come directly from 
the spirit and example of the world's Redeemer. It is 
just such simple acts as this of Andrew, Simon Peter's 



THE VINE AND THE BRA VOM 

brother, that have kindled the camp-fires pi pi 

- and Led the nations onward. 

Call over ilif names of those we love, whose lives we 
revere, whose memories are green, whose deeds arc like 
stars; or think of the mighty prophets of reform whose 
tread shook the world and shak still, and we shall 
find thai in their union with Chrisl is the Becrei of 
their power. 

A young Jew of the city of Tarsus, on his way from 
Jerusalem to Damascus, is brought to Jesus, and some 
of the mosi amazing and beneficent results of history 
directly follow this event Saul, the bigoted persecutor 
and narrow Pharisee, becomes by this union the heroic 
Apostle Paul, whose converted heart is the first human 
heart that was great and loving enough to embrace the 
world — the first to glow with love for all mankind; the 
first that, filled with the impartial spirit of the Gospel, 
reflected the love of Christ for all men, regardless of race 
or clime; the first that, in the wide embrace of true af- 
fection, regarded all men as brethren, all nations as 
made of one blood, all equal in creation as the offspring 
of God. Hence Paul is the first missionary to the Gen- 
tile world. II is great heart melted the icy barriers of 
the nations, and through his zeal the first international 
sympathy the world ever saw was kindled into a divine 
flame of cementing love. How grand his idea of the 
union of all tribes and clans in the service of Christ. — 
all nations one in the worship of the universal Father, 
'"'who dwells not in temples made with hands''! 

Xo reform has ever yet been seen that equals this 
work of Paul in its sublime hope and faith. Xo wonder 



: 159 LI VTNQ Q l TB8TI0NB. 

shook the shores of the greal Bea from Gibraltar 
to Lebanon! No wonder his words brought conviction 

I life, and that his eloquence Bhook a thousand idols 
into dust, causing "the heathen deities to fall Like ex- 

^uished stars from their Olympian heaven." By the 
bringing of this one man to Christ the axis of the moral 

ation is changed, and the might of his influence is 

D in all BUbsequenI history. He is the chosen advo- 
cate and pioneer of the world's political and religious 
rty. 

The son of a German miner is brought to Jesus, and 
the colossal tyranny of ages falls before his Christian 
heroism. Luther with Christ is stronger than papal 
Europe, while the progress of modern times was made 

ure by his fidelity to Holy Scripture and conscience. 

Ahout the beginning of the eighteenth century 
Borne obscure students at Oxford were brought to a per- 
sonal knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and how 
marvelous has been the result ! By their Christian 
energy those despised students exalted and blessed tin 4 
British Empire as no king or nobleman had ever done; 
how much more does England owe to Wesley and 
Whitefield for her greatness than to Marlborough and 
Wellington ! Not only did they bless England, but by 
their zeal and devotion they raised to a nobler level the 
Bluggish piety of a world. Our Pilgrim Fathers were 
first brought to Christ, before the Mayflower brought 
them to Plymouth. They were first brought to the 
broad sympathy and liberty of Jesus, before they were 

commissioned t<> con-cerate a world to the rights of man. 
Carey and Morrison, Xavier and Judsou were brought 



THE VIM" i VD Tin-: i B 

and they, with the hei ad heroines like 

them, have brought millions home to God ! Bj the 

jhty impulse of Christian love, the] 

ad mountains, did qoI oounl their lives bo precious 

he winning d s. Ami now I si in heaven, 

ami u their works follow with them.'' 

y ou remember when timid friends aimed to dissuade 
ter from his noble purpose to preach the Gospel 
d the Euphrates and the Ganges, he replied in the 
immortal hymn : 

" Hush lose y<>ur dismal story; 

What to n\r arc tempests wild? 
Heroes on the way to glory 

Heed not pastimes of a child; — 
For the souls of men I'm sailing. 

Blow, ye winds, north, south, east, west; 
Though the storm be round me wailing, 

There'll be peace within my breast." 

William Wilberforce was brought to Jesus, and England 
became an empire of free men, — the first in human his- 
tory. But we cannot name nor count the stars that 
shine in God's sky, not even those of the first magni- 
tude; He alone who made them can tell all their names 
and number them. 

Some sixty years ago, George the Fourth was king of 
Britain. What is left to-day of that royal life? Is there 
anything save a scanty record of worthlessness and shame? 
Under this king there lived and toiled, down by the sea 
at Portsmouth, a poor, lame shoemaker who, besides 
pounding the lapstone on his knee, consecrated him 
to bringing the outcast and the forsaken to Christ the 



354 UVING QUB8TT0N& 

tour. While the monarch rests iu undisturbed forget- 
fulness, the cobbler is crowned with immortal glory. 
Sea : poor, Buffering John Pounds, though dead, is 
preaching still,— the prophet of philanthropy, the savior 
of the neglected and forgotten. Eow fruitful was his 
loving life ! How many he brought to Jesus ! Bis little 
Bhop, eighteen by six, became to no less than five hundred 
forsaken children the entrance to manhood, the door of 
life and salvation. Though dark and dingy, it was the 
gate of heaven. What a halo of glory will gather round 
the old cobbler when, standing amid the rescued ones, — 
standing before the throne of judgment, — the Saviour 
shall say as he gives him the crown, " Inasmuch as ye 
did it unto one of these, my brethren, even these least, 
ye did it unto me"! 

Thus we Bee and vindicate the value of this record, the 
importance of this simple act of Simon Peter's brother. 
And we may sec the meaning of Christ when he says, 
" He that abideth in me, and I in him, bringeth forth 
much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing." And 
we can understand more clearly also the meaning of St. 
Paul as he exclaims. "] can do all things through Christ 
which strengthened me. M This is both saintly ex- 
perience and sober truth. Look at it for a moment. 
We are not aware how much of Christ there is in the 
world. What can you name that dignities and adorns 
this life of ours : of what privilege or enjoyment can you 
think: to what beneficent enterprise can you point; to 
what glory of art, beauty of literature, revelation of 
power, or grandeur of attainment, that is not the out- 
come of Christianity j the result of union with Christ? 



RES VTNB .\\l> THE BRANCR 

bearing the world on to diviner b< 
tid< thai rtir the great deep of humanity, .-till 

beai out from the loving heart of Chi ' And Andre* 

findeth first his own br< on, and saitta onto him, 

We have found the M- w ah; and he brought him unto 
Jesus." I- not tins a complet I are oi itial 

unity ? 1 1 uo1 answer, What is it to be a 

Christian? Does \\ uot present the true and o 

tial ant .! oi a life rich in hope, faith, and char 

Indeed, is not this simple art the initial of practical, 
eha: 3 Christianity ? Do we not find here the true 

philosophy of the Gospel it beii sonaland loving, 

Dot abstract or th< a; ? " He brought him to Jesus." 

A living union of heart with heart, a blending of life 

with life, instead of subscription, instead of dogma or 

ritual; — not something doctrinal, but vital; not form, 
but spirit; not the perfection of logic, but fullness of 
love; not the solving of a metaphysical problem, but 
divine sympathy; not a plan or system, but being, the 
reflection of Divinity; not a creed, but a life; not 
profession, but character; not truth formulated, but 
truth incarnate, embodied; not the Shibboleth of a sect, 
but love, light, inspiration; — a personal, living union; 
the member is united to the body, as the branch to the 
vine: so that we are one with Him and in Him who is 
"head over all tilings to the Church, which is his body, 
the fulness of him that tilleth all in all.'' It seems to 
me this is Christianity according to Christ. 

Just here let me quote a few striking words from our 
well-known, earnest brother, Rev. Joseph Parker. Speak- 
ing of the " divine call, " he says: u Probably the greatest 



LIVLXt; QVBSTION& 

stumbling-block to the extension of Christ's influence is 

or formulated theology. The world is i 
waiting for a voice crying in the wilderness thai men are 
to be Bayed, not by theology, but by Christ. The Church 
must L r <» back to Christ's own living and mighty way of 
talking to craving and aching hearts. Throughout his 
ministry Jesus called men to himself: c Follow me;' 'Come 
unto me' — this is the personal strain from beginning to 
end, and it is the only strain adapted to the capture and 
redemption of the world. Christ calls men to himself 
without first Betting forth a list of points to be accepted. 
We have to believe in the Eevealer, and then we shall 
have no difficulty about the revelation. This call met a 
dee}) craving of the heart. The world had lived long 
enough upon written promises; the cold parchment was 
becoming colder day by day. The aching heart of so- 
ciety wanted a heart, — life demanded life. It has been 
often asserted that Christ did not set down in sequential 
order what is known as a system of divinity. This is 
true, and a most striking proof of his divine authority 
and wisdom. The divine, the immeasurable, the eternal 
cannot be formulated." Life cannot be systematized. 
Christ did not come with a written creed in quest of sig- 
natures: for this would have divided instead of united 
the world; but he came to give life — to give it more 
abundantly." 

1 have no doubt that my experience has been also the 
experience of thousands; and I well remember how long 
I BOUght the God of a system, a doctrinal Saviour, the 
Redeemer of a formula, and sought in vain. But when 

1 felt and saw the personal sympathy of a loving, divine 



THE 17. YA' \\D THE BRANCH. 867 

II. art, — a of the on and 

bearing the burd ful; a heart thai brooded 

r me in infinite tenderness, [ike the yearning in 
of my mother, as real and as compassionate: nay, that 
was pierced and broken tor m en what light, what 

Boo joy and peaa confidence and hope, 3W< 

throngh my being, ae I tell and knew the personal love 
of Christ ! And if anything in this world the 

experience of this vital anion — this personal lore and 
lead of Christ the 8 our. 

It was neither new nor Btrange two thousand yean 
for men, as disciples or learnei seek and follow Borne 

wise man as their teacher. In all the good and 

strong have toiled to improve, to purify, and to edify their 
fellow-men: Beeking to make the good better, and to re- 
form the bad. To accomplish this, to uplift and >.-. 
there are at least two distinct methods, that may be de- 
scribed as the Philosophic and the Christian, the method 
of Greek wisdom and the method of Divine wisdom. 
Both still exist. We have the followers of Plotinus, 
Porphyry, Strauss, and Parker; we have the "Free 
Religionists," and the Philosophers of Boston, as then 
there were the teachers of Athens— sages of the Garden, 
the Portico, and the Lyceum. 

But that which men Bought before and have often 
sought since the time of Christ— the solution of the 
great problem of redemption— was solved only by our 
Divine Master; and his solution of this question is still 
the only way of life and salvation. "For there is no 
other name under heaven given among men whereby we 
must be saved/' 



358 UVnrO QUESTIONS. 

Between the Philosophic and Christian methods there 
is a radical difference. Both aimed at moral excellence; 
but while one plainly points out the path of duty, the 

other kindles in the heart a love for goodness— a hunger- 
and thirsting after righteousness. One enlightens, 

the other inspires. The Philosopher presented abst] 
t i<ms, not ideals: Christ presented himself. The Philos- 
opher made truth the object: Christ was its living em- 
bodiment, while by personal example he made a holy 

character the end. One sought to influence by maxims 
of wisdom, the other by the power of a life. Hence one 

appealed to the intellect, while the other spoke with 

sympathy and authority to the heart. One taught, the 
other added training to teaching. The philosopher said, 
u Look not tome, but follow goodness:" the Saviour said, 

" Follow nit — let the dead bury their dead — follow me, 
for I am the way, the truth, and the life." 

With all the wisdom of Athens, with all her power, 
genius, and eloquence, men went down, down in corrup- 
tion and in sin, finding philosophy powerless to cleanse 
the heart or reform the life. But the gentle invitations of 
Christ, together with his loving presence and spirit, have 
been able alone to roll back the tide of human guilt and 
woe, and, above all, to lift the sinking, despairing soul 
clean out of the depths of sin. The only moral triumphs 
of the world: healing the nation.- of savagery and op- 
pression; Lessening and abolishing the cruelties of king- 
craft and priestcraft; extending the spirit and reign of 
justice, beneficence, and brotherhood— these triumphs 
are Oesta Christi, they are alone "the achievements of 
Christ" 



Tin: vim: a\i> TBS GRANGE. 

When we come to know th< B our, and see his 
match nty as he bn !orl h ou1 of the oloi 

of our donbl and Bin, like th< . of the morning; as 

ire Bee his tender] '1 power when "he lets the lifted 

thunder drop," and extends in- arms to d og, 

" Loves! thou me? Loves! thou me more than these?" 
— we not only admire and rev< . bu1 our hearts are 

filled with an intense, an unspeakable love: and in this 
personal affection, deeper and stronger than any other, 
is found the saving power of the Gospel. 

Do you suppose that men live up to their ideal of 
right, of truth, of justice? Alas ! how few of as do as 
well as we know ! Men whose thoughts arc clear aa the 
sunshine, having dark, sensual impulses, will not obey 
the Light of intellect, hut often will follow the satanie 
enticements of their hearts. Men are not bo vile because 
reason is perverted, hut because affection or passion is 
depraved. Giant impulse is like Samson bound with 
green withes; it mocks at logic, ami all the cords of 
reason are like threads of ilax touched by flame. There 
is but one power that can hold passion in check, convert 
impulse, and sanctify even a depraved sensibility. Ajb 
we search for this power, intellectual glory Bays, " It 18 
not in me," and points sadly to many a human wreck, 
who in his fall was little less than an archangel ruined. 
Reason says, "It is not in me," and we think of him 
who was the "greatest, wisest, meanest of mankind." 
Gtenius says, " This saving [tower is not in me," and we 
recall with sorrow many "stars of the morning" who. 
Lucifer-like, have fallen from heaven — " fallen from the 
rupture of a rainbow to the remorse of a -ewer "! 



980 LIVING QUBSTI0N8 

Knowledge, zeal, faith; the eloquence of an angel or 
a Webster; the inspiration of a Balaam ora Byron; the 

wisdom of a Solomon ora Bacon — all fail: but "Charity 

never faileth." Love alone is victorious over evil. Even 

by human means we see how it saves, [fwe love o 

who 18 pure; if the heart is drawn out in supreme alV 
tion to a loving heart that is also strong and noble, it 
will often redeem us from temptation, lift the soul out of 
sin — out of the nether hell of fleshly desire. Love for 
wife, child, parent is a redeeming power. Many a baby 
hand has touched witli divine healing a household, or 
gently led a wicked father tip to God. " He that abideth 
in love abideth in God, and God abideth in him." 

Not many years ago a noble, loving woman sailed the 
wide seas, and in the name of Jesus gave her heart and 
life to her wretched sisters in India. How the mountain 
barriers and the iron chains of ages are pierced and 
melted by her power ! The beatings of her heart shake 
down the walls that no cannon's thunder could destroy. 
" Virtue goes out from her, healing the bloody issues of 
forty centuries; it makes women of slaves, and brings 
hope to this old nation. Thousands of little girls speak 
the name of Miss Carpenter as martyrs speak the name 
of Jesus." 

Says an English writer: "Being out late that night, I 
returned by the Lee cabin about eleven o'clock. As 1 
approached, I saw a Btrange-looking object cowering un- 
der the low eaves. A cold rain was foiling; it was late 
i t 1 autumn. As I drew near 1 saw it was Millie, wet to 
the -kin. Her father had driven her out some hours 
before, and she had lain down to listen for the heavy 



the vnra and the branor 

snoring of his drunken dumb ••••[> 

back to her bed, Bui before Bhe heard it, 11 into 

a troub ep, with the rain-drops pattering upon her. 

1 tried to take her home with me; but no: true as a 
martyr faith, she struggled from me and returned 

to her dark and silent cabin. So in lov< filed, and 

at length Lee grew >len1 to his Belf-denying child. 

One day, as he awoke after a dehauch, and saw his 
Millie preparing his breakfast, and heard her sin-in. 
childish song, lie turned to her and, with a tone almost 
tender, said: l Millie, what makes you stay with mi'?' 

"'Because you are my father, and because I love 
you/ 

"'You love me? 5 repeated the wretched man; 'you 
love me! ' He looked at his bloated limbs, his soiled and 
ragged clothes. ' You love me,' he murmured. ' Millie, 
what makes you love me ? I am a poor drunkard— every- 
body despises me: why don't you ? ' 

"'Dear father,' said the girl, with swimming eyes, 
'my mother taught me to love you; and every night she 
comes from heaven and stands bv mv little bed, and 
says, "Millie, don't leave your father; he will get away 
from that rum-fiend some of these days, and then how 
happy you will be!"'" 

It was enough; the day of redemption had come. 
Love had triumphed. The chains that bound this victim 
snapped asunder. The love of God incarnate in the 
heart of a child : — this is a revelation of the power of the 
kingdom of heaven. 

How full of suggestion and instruction are the words 
of our text! The great end of the Gospel is to bring us 



362 LiviMi QtrBSttOUtA 

God. But how much precious time and ability hi 
been spent on the question, u Who shall have the right to 
bring souls to Jesus ? w or, How shall men seek tin-Lord? 
or, Where Bhall we find the Saviour? 

Our bliss and perfection are in the divine indwelling. 
Our glory, our heaven, to be "partakers of the divine 
nature" — " filled with all the fulness of ( k)d. w And how 
plain and simple are the conditions of this highest life — 
this life that comes with joy unspeakable! "Look unto 
me I" " Behold the Land, of God I w "Come unto me V s 
"If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink." 

Ear as any doctrine, any dogma, any form or ceremon- 
ial helps us or brings us to Christ, helps us and hinds 
OS to God, it is good, it is orthodox; 'out apart from 
this office it is useless. Yet, does not this liberty 
verge upon license? 

I know God is perfect and demands perfection. I 
know God is exact. He counts the dust and weighs the 
atoms; but we do not imitate the exactness of Cod by 
being technical, hypercritical, and formal: by tithing of 
our garden-herbs, and Btraining out gnats, while weomit 
the weightier matters of the law, and. after all our theo- 

ical filtering, end with Bwallowing camels. There is 
nothing in Christianity like the use of a charm, or an 
enchantment; but with all its mysteries it is practical as 
life, direct as Bunbeams, solemn and positive as the Word 
of God. u Be that is not with me is against me:'* u Be 
that is not against us is for us, ,J said the Master. 

No, beloved, the sou] is not cleansed by any outward 

ramental lustrations, though conduits should bring 

the baptismal flood straight from the Jordan. Christ 



TEE VINE AM> THE BRANCH. 

Inn! Lustration. We are cleansed 

only by Bim who comes without oh mes in 

mercy, Baying, "Now arc ye clean through the word 
which I have Bpoken unto vou." Ami you remember 
the word of the beloved Apostle, u 1 1 we confess our sins, 
Christ will cleanse as Erom all unrighteousness. ,J " The 
blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin." 

Wearenol regenerated by water- by washing; bu< we 
are " washed by regeneration." As Paul say-: "Saved 
through the mercy of God by the washing of regenera- 
tion, and the renewing of the Holy Spirit." It is no! by 
works of righteousness we are saved, for we "arc all the 
sons of God by faith in Jesus Christ." We arc not re- 
erated by baptism, but we are regenerated when bap- 
tized into Christ; but Christ is neither salt water nor 
fresh, neither the water of sprinkling, pouring, nor 
plunging. Yet this sacrament of baptism is precious: 
sacranientum, solemn pledge of our allegiance to the 
Divine Leader, and the symbol of our purity — that we 
will follow him in white. 

How wide and blessed is the liberty of the Gospel, 
how divine in its simplicity ! Here we see it in its com- 
pleteness: "And he brought him unto Jesus." 

Xot on this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem; neither 
on Zion nor on Gerizim are we to find the Saviour and 
worship the Father. We may find him at the well, by the 
river-side, out on the desert sea, in the wilderness, behind 
the lonely bier where the lonelier mourner found him. 
Not alone in cathedral aisles, not beneath groined arches 
or temple-domes, but wherever bends the sky-symbol of 
God's all-embracing love, we may find the Redeemer; 



364 LIVING QUESTIONS. 

for our world is hallowed as bis birth-place and his tomb; 
by the mount of Buffering and the mount of ascension. 

" The healing of his em sinless dress 
I- by our beds of pain; 

We touch him in life's throng and press, 

And we are whole again. 
For warm. Bweet, tender, even yet 

A present help is he, 
And faith has still its Olivet, 

And love its Galili i 

It is not so much how wo come, or where, but Come ! 
It is not the moans, but the end; not the road, but the 
destiny; not the journey, but the home; not the cup, 
but the water and the bread of life. Yes: " Let him 
that hearetb say, Come ; and let him that is athirst 
come, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life 
freely." 

If you love your fellow-men; if you, like Andrew, have 
found the Saviour, you have the right supreme, divine, 
to bring souls to Christ: and though ordained by no 
bishop, licensed by no council or conference, it shall be 
the same to those you bring as if an archbishop or an 
angel brought them. 

Indeed, this right and power are a sacred duty. 
How solemn the thought that there are those to whom 
we are so related that if they are saved we must be the in- 
strument ! Ours must be the hand that plucks them back 
from ruin ; if they are brought to Jesus, it is for us to 
bring them. There is no stewardship like this, Its obliga- 
tions, how sacred ! Its rewards, how infinitely precious ! 

And we may labor with Christ. We too may bear 



THE 17 YD 1 UK in: .wen. 

OB and "kno* the fellowship of his raft 
Bhar ■ h him th< 

W( think of friendship and it > obligatioi >ring 

1< ,V ^ to Jesus. We think oi borne, and the Bolemn 

the parent mediate before the moei 

ill aha- between their child: 

;" oa all. 0, what a power tor good, (or 

healing of the world, there is in the gentle hand of 

Christian mother! While she lives we cannot lack 

'iily iir .t the thn ; and the 

joys >i; 3 in bringing her dear to I Ihrisl ran 

only be equaled by the rapture of presenting them in 

heaven, as Bhe ■• Behold, here am I, and the 

children thon hast given fn< 

And in conclusion let me say, in the language of 
Whittier, that it is the great and precious truth of the 
Gospel, — 

" The mystery dimly understood, 
That love of God is love of good; 
That to be saved is mainly this, — 
Salvation from our selfishness, 
From more than elemental fire, 
The soul's unsanctified desire, — 
From sin itself, and not the pain 
That warns us of its chafing chain ; . . . 
That the dear Christ dwells not afar, 
The King of some remoter star. 
But here, amidst the poor and blind, 
The bowed and suffering of our kind, 
In works we do, in prayers we pray, 
Life of our life, he lives to-day." 



Booto of KcKfliotw Interest 

FORD-. Howard & HULBERT, 
3^ */fc Pla • . .V rvfc 



Lyman Abbott, D.D. 
The Gospel History. See J. R. Gilmore. 

Henry Ward Beecher. 
Ey [ Th 

Doctrinal; pi Part II.— Practical and Vital; paper 

Si.oo. ihc two Parts in one volume, cloth, $1.50; half mor 
edges. $2.25, 

Ellinwood's Reports. Four vols.— S< 
1873, to M'ch, '74; M'ch to Sept.. '; 74l to M 

M ch to Sept., 1S75. [Uniform with " Evolution and Religion "1 
Cloth, §1.50 per vol. J 

PLYMOUTH It; I [T, back numbers, 5 cts. ; assorted lots, 50 
per dozen. Send for list of remaining number! 

Yale Lectures on Preaching. I. Personal Elements; 

IL a^ Religious .Machinery; III. Christian Doctrines 

and their Use rhirty-thi -ures. 960 pages Three vol- 

umes in one. Vellum cloth. $2.00. 

Comforting Thoughts, for thosi i\ Bereave- 
ment, Illness, am. Adversity. Compiled by Irene Ovino 

ton. With Vignettes Cloth, limp, 75 cts.; cloth, gilt, $1.00; 
cushioned sealskin, gilt edges, $2.00. 

Royal Truths. Reported from his Spoken Words. 
Fourth American from Sixth English Edition. Cloth, $l.2<: half 
calf, $2. 00. 

A Summer in England. Addresses, Lectures and 
Sermons delivered there in 1SS6. With account of the Trip, by Mai. 
JAS. B. POND. Photo artotype portrait. Cloth, gilt top, '$2 00. 

Patriotic Addi i \ Si ivery, Civil War .in- 

cluding the Speeches in England, 1S63), and ClVIL I in 

the United Stati irmons, Articles, Letters, and Speeci 

1850 to 1S85.] With a Review of his Personality and Political In- 
fluence by John R. Howard. Svo. Illustrated with Portraits. 
Cloth, $2.75; cloth, gilt. $3.25; half mor.. red edges, $4.25. 
{Subscription.) 

Lectures to Young Men, on Various Important 
Subjects. Cloth, $1.50. 



RELIGIOUS PUBUCA TIONS. 



Amory II. Bradford, D.D. 
Spirit and Life. Thoughts for To-Day, on the 

divine influence in human life. Vellum cloth, Si.oo. 
in admin , YI — Christian Union, 

I lelen Campbell. 
The Problem of the Poor. By the author of The 

Easiest War in Horn Cloth, 60 cts. 



tear, practical advice about 
methods of helping the pooroi 

in their scale of 
living, especially in matter of Di( 
its relation to Drunkenness and Dis- 
The book is both attra 



interesting, and of marked value in 
its unpretending contribution to the 
work of cleansing the sources from 
which come the great volume of our 
criminals — and our voters.'' — San 
Francisco Alta~( 'aJiforma. 



James R. Gilmore (Edmund Kirke). 

THE GOSPEL HISTORY. A connected Narrative of the 
Life of our Lord, woven from the texts of the Four Evangelists. 
With Notes, original and selected. — Indexes: Chronological Life 

of Christ; Persons, Places, and Topics, with over 300 referem 
Scriptun ;^es used in Text. List of 300 authors quoted. 

By James K. Gilmore {Edmund Kirke) and Rev. Lyman Ab- 
bott, D.D. Crown Svo, 840 pp. Cloth, red edges. £1.50. 



"No work on the Gospels which 

has yet been published will be found 

to take tl. .1 unique, 

compact, and interesting mod 

exhibiting the substance of the Gos- 

and with the aid of 

• ry considerable body 

will furnish a welcome help to a 

multitude of New Testament 

students ir obtaining a vivid concep- 



tion of the life and teachings of our 
Lord." — Rev. A. C. Kendrick, 
D.D., P% 

sity < ' er y Men Amer- 

ican Committee of Revision, N. 1 

" Better adapted to common use 
in the family than any Harmony of 
the G nth which we are ac- 

quainted." — Xezv England er (Con- 
gregational ist). 



Roswell D. Hitchcock, D.D. 
See New Testament and Psalms: American Version. 

Nathan C. Kouns. 

Dorcas: The DAUGHTER of FAUSTINA. A Tale of 
Rome and the Early Christians. By the author of " Arius the 
Libyan." 255 pp. Beautifully Illustrated* $1.25. 

" Yon have hit the truth in iv. 

to the primitr. 1 istianity. 

Such books and id to my 

mind, are like lightning: they are un- 

; . mablv brilliant; they Startle .in. I 

the moment, 

.... but in the md they purity the 
\. W. 1 1 >UR- 
. nor of ki A Eoofs Brra 



u The interest throughout is warm 

and human, the style simple and 

and the descriptions <^f the 

Roman Emperors, ^<i the Christian 

bishop Eusebius, the domestic life of 
the Romans, and the Christian life 
and worship in the catacombs, are 
picturesquely presented and histori- 
cally correct." — Art Interchange. 






John G. Lansing, D.D. 
See New T lent and Psalms: American Version 



Harriet Raymond Lloyd 
Life a no Li pti rs of John Howard Raymond, First 

President of Vassar College College for Women]. Edited 

by 1 744 pp., Bvo. 'loth, $9 

14 It iS 1 n« >r that paid him l'< M 

out of his own brain, the a<l- work 

t« » practice, the Traveller. 

working out of the pathway (W the " A book, the charm of which it ia 

higher e tA women where n< ad- 

ratism mirably judicious n a wholly 

and intelligent progress by which I ind singularly beautiful. 

result and the entin U do d< I 

ion of his read, to perpetuate the use- 

cago Ad- 



-which chief 

monument." — rk 'Limes. 

••Dr. Ravm<»nd deserves all the 



fulness of the in 
vance. 



Henry C. McCook, D.D. 
Thf Women Frii ndS of Jesus. By the Pastor of the 

Tabernacle Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia. Crown Bvo, 450 
pp. Cloth, decorated, $2.00. Cloth, gilt, $2.50. Turkey mor- 
occo, gilt, $5.00. 

11 A thoughtful sentence caught our 
and we soon found that the 
[ is full of such. . . There is a 
very striking mingling of ancient 
learning and modern illustration. . . 
A true acquaintance with the modern 
Orient is brought to bear upon the 
discussion of the past." — The Church- 
man (Episcopalian), New York. 



••Very good, clear and unambi- 
tious 111 • full of picture, 
character, vigor; unmarn-d by cant 

, or narrowness; with learning 
books and acquaintance with human 

i nature well coupled; graphic with 
experiences of travel; every way 
commendable. "Springfield {Mass.) 

I Republican. 



Thomas M. McWhinney, D.D. 

Reason and Revelation, Hand in Hand. Crown 
594 pp. Cloth, $1.50. 

well adapted to the questionings of 
the time; strong, clear, and cogent." 
— The Lutheran (Philadelphia). 



8vo. 

"Showing the reasonableness of 
revealed religion when seen in the 
light of common sense. A book 



Heavenly Recognition. The natural and scriptural 

arguments for personal immortality and identity after this life; 
comforting discourses. i2mo. Vellum cloth, 60 cts. 

"A charming book; rich in in- 1 range, and makes everything bear 
struction, comfort, and help.'' — Chi- ' upon the point of discussion." — 
cago Standard. | St. Louis Central Baptist. 

11 He reasons well, takes a wide 



PUBLICATIONS. 



New Testament and Psalms. 
The American Version: Revised New Testament and 

P; i vol. Cl '•. red edges, $1.00. Containing: 

The Testament^ with the preferred readings and 

renderings of the American Revisers embodied in the text, by 
Rev. : i I). HITCHCOCK, I). I)., late President Union Theo- 

logical Seminary. New York City; and 

The Revised Book of Psalms, similarly edited, by John G. 
LANSING, D.D., Professor of Old Testament Languages and 
Exegesis, Theol. Seminary. New Brunswick, N. J. 
" It represents the b Idest, ble." — Dr. Ezra Abbot, of the Am. 

Cue purest, Greek text . . . [and] Committee of J\ 



is the most accurate English render- 

-tence of that Greek i 
— X. V. Ch. Inteli 

ireat pains have evidently been 
taken to make it accurate. . . . The 

raphical execution is admira- 



The old-fashioned combination 
of Testament and Psalms, so dear to 
many a household for devotional pur 

poses will be obtainable in large 
agreeable type and at a low price.'* 
— CJnist' lard (Cinn., O.) 



Also, The Book of Psalms (foregoing). Limp cloth, 25 cts. 

Jacob Harris Patton, Ph.D. 
CONCISE History of the American People. Illus- 
trated with Portraits. Charts, Maps, etc. Marginal Dates, Census 
Tables. Statistical References, and full Indexes. 2 vols., 8vo, $5.00. 
"Proi". Patton approaches much 

nearer to the ideal historian than any 
1 of similar books." — Christian 



Anyone can satisfy himself on this 
point by reading what he 1 . 
concerning the effect of the Reforma- 
tion on American history, the Hugue- 
not-. John Eliot, the Pilgrim Fathers, 
and Jonathan Edwards." — Francis 
L. I D.D., President of 

Princi .'ege. 



Cfi; 
"The writer has done his work 

ivrll \nd, what is particularly 

gratifying, he does ample justice to 
the religious elements that enter into 
the making of the American pe< 

Harriet Beecher Stowc. 
Footsteps of the Master. Meditations upon the 

Life of Our Lord on Earth; with appropriate Poems, Carols, 
Hymns, etc., original and selected. i2mo. 300 pp. With 
Rubricated titles and Illustrative vignettes. Cloth, $1.50. 

dying, their noble sustaining power 
ill time of doubt and trouble. . . . 
The volume is beautifully issued." — 

"Ol ional beauty and sub- 

stantial worth." — 1 itsona/ist. 



11 A volume of comfort, a volume 

of help, of sustained purity and noli- 

purpose. . . . No one ran 

these offerings without f< 

their uplifting influence, their earnest 

tter living and happier 



*** Send for our Selected Catalogue of choice books by American 
auth 

FORDS, HOWARD & HULBERT, 

SO Lafayette Plaoe f \< w York, 



Books of General Interest, 

FORDS, HOWARD. \ HULBERT, 

, : fil\ ttti /'. I . . \ w ) > k. 



Anonymous. 

The Volcano under im City. By A VoluVti 

pp. With n ity, showing 

lice Precincts 

A graphic and authentic account of the Draft ! i <>}, in 

which more tl men were killed: about the only public 

sode of the Civil War not heretofore written up. 

All 



M The 

tim< 

I and pn 
'klyn Tin 



■ ' For tl 
the study of the late war of tlu- i 

!i< >n in ail it indis- 



Henry Ward Beecher. 



Patriotic Addresses in Ameru \ and Eh 

(1850-1885). . Civil War and the Development of 

Civii Liberty in the United States. Edited, with a " Review of 
Mr. Beecher's Personality and Influence in Public Affairs," by 
John R. Howard. 85S pp., Svo. Illustra 
Cloth. $2 75; cloth, gilt, $3.25; half mor. , $4.25. {Subsaiph 



M Indispensable to those who would 
justly estimate Mr. Beecher's life and 
labors."— Pn.f. R.W. Raymond, Ph.D. 

'* No library and no public man should 
be without a copy of this valuable vol- 
ume."— Hon. William M. Evarts. 



■ \ new and valuable illustration of 
orator, the memory of 
which a grateful nation ought not to 
lose ; a contributio: ry of 

the nation in its most critical period. " 
— Ck ristia n i 'n ion . 



Beecher as a Humorist. Anecd ind Excerpts 

of \Vit and Humor from his works. Compiled by ELEANOR Kirk. 
i6mo, Vellum cloth. $1.00. 



11 Hundreds of themes and thoughts, 
and every one with a whip-crack in it." 
— Texas Si/tings. 



14 Extracts which now please the in- 
tellect, and now tickle the fancv into 
merriment, but which never fail to 
touch the heart of some eternal truth." 
— Providence Journal. 

Norwood; or. Village Life in New England. A novel. 

popular edition . ) Cloth , 

" Embodies more of the high art of I It will bear to be read and re-read as 
fiction than any half-dozen of the best often as Dickens' l Dom! >avid 

novels of the best authors of the day. | Copperfield.' "-Albany Eve*? Journal. 

Also, his Religious Works — Evolution and Religl 

Sermons, Lectures on Preaching. Royal Truths. Comforting 
Thoughts. A Summer in England (lectures and sermons, 1SS6). 



MISCELLANl PUBUCA TIONS* 



Alexandre Bicla. 
The Lovers of Provence [Aucassin and Nicolette)* 

A MS. Romance of the Xllth Century, rendered into UN 

QCh by Al EXANDRE BlDA. Translated into English Verse and 

Prose by A. R. MACDONOl GH. Introductory Note and Poem by 

EDMUND C Stedman. Exquisitely Illustrated by Alexandre 

BlDA, Makv EiALLOCK FOOTS, W. HAMILTON GIBSON, and F. 

man. New Edition* 121110. Antique binding, $1.50. 



"A delightful picture of mediaeval 

romance! pure in tone, and painted 

with a delicacy ol stroke and vividness 

btained in few modern 

The make-up of the 



book is in harmony with its charming 
its." 1 — Tkt Nation. 
•• Entirely unique and very beautiful 
. . . . —Cnica& Mt/.' 1 



William Cullen Bryant. 
Family Library of Poetry and Song. Edited by 

\Y. C. BRYANT. Memorial Edition* 2000 poems from 700 au- 
thors — English, Scottish, Irish and American, including transla- 
tions from ancient and modern languages; 600 poems and 200 au- 
thors not in former editions. Containing also Mr. Bryant's Intro- 
ductory Essay on Poetry, one of his most valued productions; 

Biography of Mr. Bryant, by Gen. James Grant Wilson ; Com- 
plete indexes. Illustrated. Holiday, and Memorial Subscription 
Editions. Send for circular* 



M The most complete and satisfactory 
work of the kind ever issued." 
. 

'" Nothing has ever approached it in 
completen< Mail. 

" It is highly rittiiiLi that Mr. Bryant, 



who presided over American poetry 
almost from its birth, should have left 

this collection as an evidence of his in- 
fluence in forming the American taste 

for what is pure and noble." — tin in- 
nati Christian Standard. 



Helen Campbell. 



A S\ iy w City. Philadelphia, Old and New. 
fusely Illustrated* $200. 



Pro- 



beautiful and attractive a book 

up<»n the picturesque localities and 
characters of Philadelphia has never 



before been issued. 

Philadelphia. 



The Keystone, 



Tm Easiest Way in Housekeeping; 
Cloth. $r.oo. 

M By all odds the completest house- 
hold ''Cook-book ' that has come under 

our n •! <• 

"Admirable in matter, cheap in 

I 



and Cooking 



price, it seems will calculated to sup- 
ply the missing link in that line." — Chi- 



The Housekeepi r's Yi ar Book. Limp cloth, 50 cts. 



rt of culinary almanac 

forth-- year, with various instructions 

• h< >us<h- .id ac- 

counl d week by week; para- 

-> on marketing for the various 

the table; useful in- 



formation regarding the day's workj 
and at the back a blank summary and 

outline for 'household Invent 

' household hints,' etc.— Stan- 



. 






Mai tin VVai ren ( ' 
e Human M i 1 1 let, An 

1. with 

I 



■ ■ r 
thai w int for all the fa< ts, har- 

mless 
and 
drew much in- 



sj.ir.ui. »n from Greek and Roman < 

bile ' bett 
i i nly makes out an 

*.kai: 



S. M. Henry Davis. 

\ hts and Russi \n Dai s. The Record 
int Summer Tour. With many /.. 

d cloth. Si.-s; of. calf, gilt top, uncut. $2 5 

ntirely delightful; " In form it i-, a Joy to tin i • 

re print and 
written.'" bundant illustrations and pi 

Philip Sidni v: His Life and Time St. 
Portrait of Sidney; Vie* of Penshurst Castle; fac-simile 
MS i2iiH). Cloth, $i 
"Worthy of pla b distinct and lasting thai: 

"Compels tl a, and i 

leaves upon his mind impressions more | 

F. C. Gardner. 

The HOUSI iiiat Jul BuiLT, after Jack's had 
Proved a Failure. A book on H ture. With I 

tuitions and J 'fans, by the author. Cloth. $1.50. 

'Includes .... whatever is really I " How the maximum of comfort 
necessary in order to build an artistic I beauty can red with the mini- 

and convenient house. . . . Rich in mum 1 e.' —Chi 

sound suggestions."— Boston Globe. 

Fanny Chambers Gooch. 

Face to Pack with the \Ii\t< ins The Dome! 
Life, Educational, Social and Business VI hip and 

Literature, Legendary and General History of the Mexican I 
pie. as Seen and Studied by an American Woman During Seven 
Years of Familiar Intercourse with them. Large %\ . pp. 

illustrations from original drawings and photographs. 



11 It is like living in M read 

this book. . . . Altogether this 

. piquant, instructive and reada- 
ble work. Many books take one to 
Mexico; this takes one into Mexico."— 
ry II 'arid ', Boston. 
" A treasury of romance, legend, 



: 'ion, and 
genial humor .... a remarkabi- 

.... of valuable infor- 
mation, alike inter. the trav- 

1 to the business com- 
munity/ 1 M. R 



MIS 



I ohn G< 1 [ezeki< 

karck: His Ai rHENTic Biography. Including 

many i'ri. torical Introduction 

bv Bayard Taylor. Profusely Illustrated: ,\ < \p x etc. 

If mor., S4.00. 

"I , for the hi 

raphy with the brains knocked < -ut,* ■ Bismarck is really the modern his 

this partly volume ma] ay and the key to ti. 

. I modern EurOfM 

Harriet Raymond Lloyd. 

1. wi> Letters 01 John II. Raymond, Organ- 
izer and 1 sident of \ ollege. Edited by his eldest 
daughter. Svo. trait. Cloth, beveled, %. 

" It is the Creation Of VaSSar Collge reached, and the entire consecration 
out of his own brain, the advance from ' of his life to these ends — which is Dr. 



■ ice. the working 
the pathway for the higher 
of women where none existed, that 
wi^e conservatism and Intelligent 

by which these results were 



- chief monument. " — New 

Ii)ues. 
•■ \ tx >k, the >harm of which it is 
not c Ad- 



Henry C. McCook, D.D. 

Tenants 01 an Old Farm: Leaves from the Note- 
Book of a Naturalist. By the Yice-Pres. A^ iences, 
Philadelphia. Profusely L ./. 460 Well indexed. 

cloth. Published a 
El irsions and investigations into the habits of moths, bees, hor- 
nets, ants, spiders, crickets, cidadas, and many varieties of inse 

"I have much pleasure in bearing "The scientific accuracy, the g 

mony to the fidelity and skill which illustrations and simple descripl 

ed to the study make it a valuable book f or amateurs 
of these interesting r ad- 

who read his work mav safely de; n l tranced students.' 
on the accuracy of what h< 

i " Would make a charming present to 

the English Editi. one of scientific tastes."— . 

Jacob Harris Patton, Ph.D. 

History of the American People. Illus- 
trated with Portraits Charts. Maps, eta Marginal Hates, Census 
Tabl istical References, and full Index s. 2 v >ls., Bvt 

"M greal pleasure in com-! " \\ short his- 

ling it for all the pu: ry of the Unil ever 

comi been published/'— 1 

I N. \ 

Tm. Democratic Party: I ' itical History and 

Inline: pp. ( 'loth. Sl.OO. 

In instructive outli 1 he- whole political history of th 



FORI 

Roto i 1 K. Raymond. 

I " A 

AT." 

$2.50. 

• 

I 

Ich \\«- hold him 

I . 

William S. Searle, M.D. 
A New Form oi Nei Disease. With an Essay 

on Erythroj 1 cents. 

William < teborne Stoddard. 
Abk 1 >f a ( rreal I - 

By one of President Lincoln's i ' Illus- 

trated. Cloth %2A 

M W'nt:. □ is ' 
and intensely r nning 

to end— M- - 

to the i 
raphy and scarcely will be si 
by the efforts of any subsequent 



author."- Tk* ■ 

ic and entertainii 
h in incident as an) • 
ding with 



Albion W. Ton 
An Appeal to Casar. Advocating National Aid to 

iucation throughout the States, in proportion to illiteracy and to 
the local efforts to remedy it. Diagrams and Tables. Cloth, %\ 

"The auth rrand 1 | "Or 

speaks with authority upon the subje 

which, as he proved'in that deservedly census figures that arc simply astound- 
. ar work, few men have studied injf, while his k -merit 

more carefully and on the whole so can- of them compels and 1 .tten- 

didly."— London Saturday i | lion.'"— Publisher^ Weekly, X. Y. 

Ben C. Truman. 

The Field of Honor. A History of Duelling and 
Famous Duels. The* Judicial Duel ; The Private Duel through- 
out the Civilized World ; Descriptions of all the Noted Fatal 
Duels that have taken place in Europe and America. i2mo. 
Cloth, $2.00. 

"Full of interest to the student, the [ reader. . . . One of those Bp< 
soldier, the professional analy. arilv find place In every 

passion and motive, and to that curious j library."'— Mag '•' Hi* 

and omnivorous creature, the genera! X. V. 



MISCELLANEOUS PC HI.. 



John C. Van Dyke. 
Principles 01 Art. Part I. — Art in History^ its 

I, nature, development, and dit'i'erei; un. 

Pail II — Afi in \ QOtiveS, and manner of 

expression. 121110. Vellum Cloth. %\ 

■• i "■.! kly M-t with points of interest, I kt As a rapid, bright series of historical 
judi. ten and intelligently sus the book i npute 

tained.'* — The Di al % Chicago. -ury."— I 

Theodore S. Van Dyke. 
Southern California: Its Valleys, Hills, and 

Streams; Its Animals, Birds, and Fishes; Its Gardens, Farms, 
and Climate. i2mo. Extra Cloth, beveled, $1.50 



■ I he result of twelve years' experi- 
ence in that noted region. The author 
has traversed it many times, rifle In 
band."— < Cincinnati Cod: 

A keen and observant naturalist." 
>:don lEng ) Morning Post . 



"Without question the best book 
which has been written on the South 
ern Counties of California, . . May 
mmended without any of the usu.j 
reservations." — San Francisco Chron- 
icle. 



The Still Hunter. A Practical Treatise on Deer- 
stalking-. i2mo. Extra Cloth, beveled, $2.00. 

"The best, the very best work on I " A 1 1 « tgether the best and most com- 
deer hunting. — Spirit 0/ the Titnes, | plete American book we have 
-V V. j on any branch of field sports. '—New 

I York Evening Post. 

The Rifle, Ron, and Gun in California. A Sport- 
ing Romance. i2mo. Extra Cloth, beveled, $1.50. 



"Crisp and readable throughout, 
and, at the same time, gives a full and 
truthful technical account of our South- 



ern California game, afoot, afloat or 

On the \\\ni;."—S<in Francisco 

Colt 



Tullio di Suzzara Verdi, M.D. 
Maternity: A Popular Treatise. Eighth Edition. 

i2mo. Cloth, $2 00. 

Treating of the needs, dangers, and alleviations of the duties of 
maternity, and giving detailed instructions for the care and medical 
treatment of infants and children. 

\ carefully written and very com- as an unusually able and S 
prehensive work. Whose author has for practitioner. . . . A safe friend and 

a well known in Washington guide." .v. )'. limes. 

The Infant Philosopher : Stray Leaves from a 
Baby 's Journal. Parchment Taper, 3octs.; Vellum Cloth, 50 cts 

thisbookl< 

js not frivolous n<>r even literary ; but 

: he matter 

of the child's ne hild's 

... The 

■ ibserving 
of the embodied in a new 



form of quaint simplicity. " — 754* I 
N v. 
■■ Every young m ild be fur- 

nished with a copy of this dainty bro- 
chure, which i^ as much a book of 
practi 

PhiLadelp] 






1 >i. William Wagner. 

■ Row MlDDl i 

the Genu 

- 

! su,,piv the requir 

nhau- d. 

and all 
Otic realm fi 

u in- 
Major Ge K. Williams. 

Bui i i i i War as th aw it : 

Battlefield a; and 

Hospital. f ] Iwin ! vo \ ; 

///* I loth, $2 - 

M Very 

•■ I have no hesitation in recommend- 



Juncture.*' 



I the in; army 



'• We k: 

ur interesting volume." \\ 1 b ul-inspiring book. I: 

delight the old 
1 oai e read t 






remely, as 

James Grant Wilson. 
Bryant and His Friends. Some Reminiscences of 

the Knickerbocker Writers. 1 DANA, 

Cooper. Hai i eck, and Drake ; together with l. Willis, 

yard Taylor, and others. Illustrated with Steel Portraits and 
Fac-Simile MSS. i2mo. Cloth beveled, gilt tup, $200. 

"I have read it with interest and M No man living is probably so well 

sure." -G v illiam Curtis, fitted iutnor of this volume to 

.dard volume of literary his- sketch the group 

■ r. wri:' 

" Accept my thanks, as a NeW ¥ • rk " A delightful addition to I 

author, for the work you have a< f literary and personal hi c/ii- 

pli-.hed."' — Edmund C. Stbdman. \cagoIntei 



"Remainder of large paper Edition 

WHICH WAS STRICTLY LIMITED TO 195 NUMBERED COPIES. 

Illustrated with 48 rare Steel Portrait Plates, 4 views of Poets' 
Homes (Steel) and 17 pages of Manuscript facsimile. 

Cloth, gilt top. uncut edges, $15.00. In Sheets, for adding 
illustrative plates, at the same price. Full Mor., gilt, $25. 



*** Send for our Selected Catalogue of choice American books. 

FORDS, HOWARD, & HULBERT, 

30 Lafayette Place, New \'<>rk. 



H 



HI 






LIBRARY OF 



CONGRESS 




^m 



^^H 
«>.' 



>■& 



017 524 867 5 



■ 

m M 



■d 



■ 



;m 



M 






17&1&&& 







#:2 



■;-jt.: 



h 

n 



■ 

■H B 

■r 

BB 

■ Hi 




■I 



